What do you do win you win the lottery? Buy a BMW, of course!

As reported in the Daily Record, Shop assistant Liz Harrop sold an £8.9million winning lottery ticket - to herself. Liz, a £4.20-an-hour assistant in a newsagent's shop in Dundee, Scotland, bought the only ticket to match all six numbers. She is now the fourth-biggest lottery winner in Scotland. Liz was presented with the cheque for £8,919,798, made out to both her and Alan, at the Swallow Hotel, in Dundee yesterday. Her partner Alan, dressed in a kilt and blue sporran, claimed the money wouldn't change them, but would give them more free time to indulge in hobbies. Alan intends to replace his 11-year-old BMW 5 Series. He said yesterday: "The first thing I'll do when we come back from holiday is buy a BMW X5. I love my old car but it will have to go. I've always wanted a top-of-the-range 4x4 vehicle and have had my eyes on an X5 for a while. When Liz learns, she'll probably drive something a little smaller, with less power." Hey, Alan, take a look at the MINI!

Here's proof that a Mercedes can also bring driving pleasure.
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Those BMW seats must be comfortable!

A British burglar who made off with a family car after an overnight raid was arrested when officers discovered the vehicle with the thief fast asleep inside. The BMW was stolen during a house burglary along with cash, wallets, telephones and credit cards. Police officers found the stolen BMW on a driveway with a man asleep inside it. Earlier the tired thief had tried to get some shut eye in a quiet road, but had to speed away from police when officers knocked on the window to wake him up.

A householder had alerted police saying an unconscious man was outside his address in the car. During his escape he managed to collide with a patrol car. A police spokeswoman said: “It seems to be very hard work being a burglar. We are grateful this gentlemen’s alleged night time activities made him so tired he had to get some shut eye.”

Just the Fax!

The Newbold Toyota-BMW dealership in O'Fallon, Illinois, learned a lesson. They hired American Blast Fax of Dallas, Texas, to promote the dealership. American Blast sent faxes to more than 33,000 businesses and homes in the 314 and 636 area codes around St. Louis, Missouri. But, unsolicited fax advertisements are barred by US federal law. "The dealership's owners did not know the practice was illegal when they hired (the) company to do the advertising", said lawyer Steven Katz.

Newbold Toyota-BMW has agreed to pay up to $6.5 million to settle the "junk fax" class-action lawsuit. A notice of the settlement was sent out to the 33,000 numbers turned over by American Blast. How were the notices sent? By fax, of course!

What your mechanic is really doing

Have ever wondered what happens to your car when you take it for service? Read the story of one mechanic who was caught by the TrakM8 GPS, as reported by the BBC.

In-car tracking systems are usually intended to keep tabs on stolen cars, but the technology can have additional benefits, as one Manchester man recently found out. The man, known only as Mr G, purchased a global positioning satellite system called TrakM8 from Dorset firm Interactive Projects. TrakM8 can be set to send an SMS text message to a mobile phone for a variety of purposes such as if the driver has broken down or is in other difficulties. It also has a feature that alerts the driver via SMS when the car is going above the speed limit. This feature proved revealing when Mr G took his car in for a routine service. When the car should have been in the garage, he received a series of SMS messages telling him that his BMW was actually speeding through the streets of Manchester. "Someone was obviously driving it with some welly and I wasn't too happy as it was a new car," said Mr G. "I called the garage with some pretty angry messages and the service manager couldn't believe it and nearly died of embarrassment," he explained. "The really funny thing was that he had fitted the system two days earlier."  "We would have loved to see the service manager's face when he was shown the action replay of the abused car," she said. It must have been one of those satisfying moments. We all know this kind of thing happens but it's great to be able to prove it," she said.