Odd News Roundup: New Jersey Police wants spilled banknotes back; Finches found in luggage at NY airport; Cockroaches to crunch waste

Following is a summary of current odd news briefs.

Craps: Dice roll sinks Arkansas candidate who twice missed voting for himself

An Arkansas city council candidate who twice showed up too late to vote for himself in a contest that ended in a tie wound up losing the race on Thursday in a dice roll to decide the winner. Becky Linebaugh, an incumbent alderman in the small town of Hoxie, rolled a "six" to hold on to her seat for a third term, defeating challenger Cliff Farmer who came up short with a "four."

Bug business: Cockroaches corralled by the millions in China to crunch waste

In the near pitch-dark, you can hear them before you see them - millions of cockroaches scuttling and fluttering across stacks of wooden boards as they devour food scraps by the tonne in a novel form of urban waste disposal. The air is warm and humid - just as cockroaches like it - to ensure the colonies keep their health and voracious appetites.

No free money in New Jersey: Police want spilled banknotes back

Police in New Jersey on Thursday urged people who grabbed banknotes that spilled out of the back of an armored truck during rush-hour traffic to return the cash, no questions asked. East Rutherford police began receiving calls at around 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT) on Thursday that cash was blowing out of the bullet-resistant truck and multiple vehicles had crashed after several motorists abandoned their cars to chase the money.

Chirp perp: Finches found in luggage at NY airport

A man was caught at New York's JFK airport last weekend trying to smuggle dozens of South American finches into the country, a bird that Guyanese immigrants covet for chirping but officials fear could spread disease, officials said on Thursday. About 70 finches were found hidden inside a shipment of hair rollers at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialist inspected the unidentified male passenger's luggage. Some of the birds had died enroute.

'Benny the Beluga' facing Christmas in the Thames far from home

A beluga whale that was first spotted nearly three months ago in the River Thames is still feeding healthily east of the British capital and facing a lone Christmas hundreds of miles from its normal Arctic habitat. The white cetacean, which feeds on fish, squid and crabs, was first spotted in September and surfaced near Gravesend, Kent on the southern side of the estuary.

(With inputs from Reuters)

(With inputs from agencies.)