Dan Lewis - Now I Know More: The Revealing Stories Behind Even More of the Worlds Most Interesting Facts

AVON, MASSACHUSETTS

To Stephanie, Ethan, Alex, Annie, and my parents.

I opened my first book, Now I Know, with a quote from Mark Twain that I think bears repeating, because its still just as correct and now twice as relevant: Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isnt.

The world is filled with stories that are literally incredible and unbelievable, shocking our sense of whats possible. Nonetheless, theyre real. For more than four years, Ive collected those storiesfirst as an ongoing e-mail newsletter; then as a book titled Now I Know, a precursor to this one; and now, in Now I Know More. You need not be familiar with either of this books precedents, though. All you need to be is curious about the world and the unlikely things that history, science, technology, and life have thrown at us.

For example, have you ever seen a word in a dictionary and didnt think it was real? It may not have been. Or, doorknobseveryone knows what they are, but why are they controversial... doubly so in Colorado? Of course, we all know that on 9/11, air traffic came to a halt. But howd that happen, and what does it have to do with whales? For that matter, what does a home cleaning solution have to do with the War on Terror?

In the following stories and their bonus factseach story has at least one bonus factwell tackle all of that and more. Well talk about the color pink, panda bears, shopping malls, birthdays, DNA, the post office, burritos, and a town that never existed. Ive written these stories so that each one connects to the next in some way or another, because while I dont expect you to read this book in one sitting, I hope that each piece of mind-blowing trivia will encourage you to explore further. After all, curiosity is what got you here in the first place. When youre done with the book, dont worrytheres more. Every weekday, I send out a free e-mail newsletter with another one of these stories. You can get that at http://NowIKnow.com.

So lets begin. Lets steal the Empire State Building.

Really. That happened once. (Just go to the next page.)

$45 million, stolen.

It took a pair of incidentsone in December 2012 and another the following Februarybut seven people, all part of what the New York Post called a sophisticated cyber crime ring spanning the world, managed to get thousands of ATMs to wrongfully pay them a sum of money approaching the net worth of the Boston Globe. Thats a huge heist. But its tiny compared to one pulled off in Manhattan in late 2008. It took ninety minutes, and the property stolen was worth $2 billion. Thats roughly the value of the Empire State Building.

Which makes sense, because thats exactly what was stolen.

Around Thanksgiving in 2008, a deed of sale came across a desk at New York City Hall, signifying the transfer of a building from Empire State Land Associates to a company called Nelots Properties. The description of the property conveyed by this deed of sale matched that of the Empire State Building, but the clerks who processed the paperwork either didnt notice or didnt care. All the important information was on the deed, as required, including the signatures of witnesses and that of the notary. The fact that one of the witnesses was named Fay Wray, the actress who played King Kongs captive as he ascended the Empire State Building in the 1933 film, likely escaped them. (To be fair, how many people in 2008 knew her name? It couldnt be all that many.) And that notary? He was a guy named Willie Sutton, who happened to share a name with a famous bank robber. Even the name of the acquiring company was a clue that something was awry; Nelots, spelled backward, is Stolen.

The good news for Empire State Land Associates is that Nelots was not a true threat to the rightful owners property. Nelots didnt exist. It was a figment of the imagination of the New York Daily News, which concocted the fake deed of sale to demonstrate how easy it is to temporarily, and illegally, obtain official ownership of real estate.

As the Daily News noted, this stunt isnt just used by pranksters and jokesters. Its used by swindlers, and no, they arent trying to move into your housein fact, these con artists dont ever need to (and often dont) visit their newly but wrongly acquired property. These new owners can take out a mortgage or other line of credit against the property, and once they have the money in hand, disappear. The true owners are left with an unclear title, liens against their property, and at times, banks looking to foreclose even though the rightful owner never took out a loan. Its not only (or even mostly) the fault of the city clerk who processes the deeds. As a PhiladelphiaCity Paper editor said in a video on deed fraud created by the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Its pretty hard to stop a forged signature and a bribed notary. Where do you stop that? Its a little more difficult. The system doesnt make it all that difficult; in the same video, an attorney who has worked on these cases claimed, It is easier to steal a home in the city of Philadelphia than it is to steal a purse. Given the Daily Newss ruse, this is probably true for New York, too, and probably many other places as well.

Homeowners and landlords arent the only victimsthe loans banks make often go unrepaid. Therefore many lending institutions have developed a system to alert them to potential fraud. The telltale sign: the mortgagees failure to make his or her first payment, which one law enforcement agency describes as a first payment default. The theory is simple: A true borrower would be able to pay the first bill, but one committing deed fraud would likely not be at the address and therefore never receive the bill, which would go unpaid.

As for the Empire State Building, the Daily News returned it before any of this was an issue.