Weird Financial News

Lest you focus just on stocks that value investing legends are buying, or on how you might find 10 dividend stocks for the next decade and beyond, here's a brief recap of some of this month's more unusual financial news:

• If S.C. Johnson wants to expand the market for RAID, it could start touting the bug spray's usefulness for a different kind of pest control. An 86-year-old grandmother in Jasper, Texas, wielded a can as she chased a burglar from her home. Perhaps the story will help S.C. Johnson get a foot in the door (no pun intended) of the lucrative home-security market.
• Hotel outfits such as Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NYSE: HOT  ) and Marriott (NYSE: MAR  ) may want to copy an exciting new service that Holiday Inn has introduced in some of its U.K. locations: bed warmers. As Reuters explains, "If requested, a willing staff-member... will dress in an all-in-one fleece sleeper suit before slipping between the sheets" to warm up the bed for the guest.
• We're betting Prison Break, Cool Hand Luke, and Escape From Alcatraz were big favorites on this Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX  ) queue. An Illinois jail, facing $2 million in budget cuts, has canceled its $35-per-month Netflix subscription, along with magazine and newspaper subscriptions. As our struggling economy takes its toll on local governments, more cancellations may follow.
• Financial institutions may want to be more careful about whose mortgage they revoke. In Massachusetts, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC  ) foreclosed on a couple's home, removing belongings and changing the locks -- even though the couple had actually bought the home for cash. It turned out B of A had the wrong address! 
• Banks may also want to let more people know about payment plans and other help with difficult loans, lest their mortgage holders resort to drastic measures instead. In Tampa, a 73-year-old man reportedly resorted to robbing banks -- $600 at a time -- in order to pay his mortgage. 
• Is there a copy editor in the house? In Chile, thousands of 50-peso coins from 2008 are in circulation -- featuring the name of the country misspelled as "Chiie."
• Finally, insurers such as Allstate (NYSE: ALL  ) might want to expand the protections they offer to customers. A meteorite traveling at 220 miles per hour recently crashed through the roof of a doctors' office in Virginia. We'd love to see the look on that claims agent's face.

Now that we've Foolishly amused you, perhaps we can educate and enrich you as well.  Check out any other article in Fooldom for great financial advice. If you're stumped for a good place to start, try "Warren Buffett's Priceless Investment Advice."