It sounds like a caper straight out of Scooby-Doo: A mysterious figure seen in the dead of night burying bags of money on the grounds of a convent, only to be unmasked as a former high-profile government figure.
And he would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling nuns.
Police were alerted on Tuesday when Jose Lopez, the former No. 2 at Argentina's public works ministry, was seen by sisters of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima, about 55 kilometres west of Buenos Aires, throwing bags over the wall of their convent.
When police arrived, they discovered Mr. Lopez, shovel in hand and armed with an assault rifle, according to the BBC. He was taken into custody on a weapons charge, and at last reports, police were still tallying up about $8.5-million (U.S.) in dollars, euros, yen and Qatari riyal, according to Bloomberg.
Mr. Lopez isn't the first high-ranking Argentine official accused of corruption. In April, businessman Leonardo Farina, in a plea deal, pointed a finger at former president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband – also a former president – Nestor Kirchner, alleging they were involved in a scheme to embezzle funds earmarked for public works.
Ms. Fernandez, no stranger to conspiracy theories about shadowy figures out to get her, denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
But Mr. Lopez had a perfectly legitimate explanation, said Security Minister Cristian Ritondo. "He later told the nuns that police had tried to steal the money that he was trying to donate." (That would be the money he tried to donate to a hole in the ground.)
Shortly after Mr. Lopez's arrest, police paraded him before the media wearing a bullet-proof vest and helmet. Mr. Lopez, reported Bloomberg, was not immediately available for comment.
You want it painted black?
As Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel said of the plain black replacement cover for the band's Smell The Glove album: "It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black."
That's what Vantablack claims to be: the blackiest black you've ever seen.
According to developer U.K.-based Surrey NanoSystems, the coating "holds the world record as the darkest man-made substance. (The folks at Guinness World Records appear to have missed the memo on that, but that's just nitpicking.)
Because the material absorbs 99.965 per cent of light, "3-D objects coated in the material are visually reduced to mere silhouettes," as Bloomberg reports.
The material is expected to be particularly useful for a range of scientific instruments, such as high-grade satellite-mounted telescopes in space, the company says.
For now, it is being used in a $95,000 (U.S.) watch designed for the person who has everything (and wants you to know they do). Swiss watch maker Manufacture Contemporaine du Temps (MCT) will release a limited edition of 10 Vantablack luxury watches this fall.
Channelling Mr. Tufnel, CEO Pierre Jacques gushed: "It's profound, difficult to describe … bottomless."
That's none more black.
You call that a warranty?
Samsung needs to get its house in order. While it has many happy customers worldwide enjoying its cellphones and household appliances, one disgruntled Indian owner of what he claims is a defective refrigerator felt he needed to reach out to the upper echelons of power to get satisfaction.
"Dear Ministers," he tweeted India's Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Monday. "Samsung sold me a defective refrigerator, they r not ready to replace."
Ms. Swaraj is one of the government's more prolific Twitter users, known for her prompt response to Indian citizens in foreign countries seeking aid, according to India today. That promptness was on display in her response to the distress of refrigerator owner less than 24 hours later.
"Brother, I cannot help you in matters of a refrigerator. I am very busy with human beings in distress," Ms. Swaraj tweeted in response.
Maybe he should get back in touch if his dishwasher and oven go on the blink, too. That would be real distress.
Playing chicken with Bill Gates
Billionaire Bill Gates latest philanthropic effort got a big thumbs-down from a would-be recipient.
Mr. Gates is a big believer in the power of the chicken to help raise folks out of poverty, as he explained last week in a blog entry called Why I Would Raise Chickens. As part of his Coop Dreams initiative, he partnered with charity Heifer International to donate 100,000 chickens to people in impoverished countries.
While it was mostly African nations Coop Dreams sought to help, Bolivia made the list, too.
But the country said thanks – but no thanks – to the offer. Actually, they didn't say thanks at all, but rather took umbrage. If Mr. Gates and Co. had done their homework, they would have learned that the country produces 197 millions chickens a year and has the capacity to export 36 million, the local poultry producing association said, according to a report in The Guardian.
"How can he think we are living 500 years ago, in the middle of the jungle not knowing how to produce?" Bolivian Development Minister Cesar Cocarico told journalists. "Respectfully, he should stop talking about Bolivia."
Soccer makes them sick
Some companies in England and Wales may secretly be hoping their national teams crash and burn out of the Euro 2016 soccer.
While the tournament is a boon for pubs, companies lose hours of productivity when soccer fans call in sick to work. And the public can suffer too: Some trains in northwest England were cancelled after an unusually high number of Arriva Trains Wales drivers took ill ahead of the big England-Wales match on Thursday, according to Wales' Daily Post.
"I don't know whether it's for the football but I can't see our guys taking a day off for the football," Brian Corbett, district officer for train drivers' union Aslef, told the Post. Apparently he said it with a straight face, too.