American Notes HIGHWAYS

It is the sort of sappy, happy dream that belongs in a feverish place like Miami: you are tooling along I-95 when an armored truck whizzes by. The back door swings open. Out falls a sack. Along comes another truck. Whack, it hits the sack. A blizzard of money explodes into the air. Cars screech to a halt, and people leap out, running every which way after the money . . .

Last week the dream came true. The back door of a Wells Fargo truck lugging some $400,000 along route I-95 burst open and, suddenly, according to a highway patrolman, it "rained $20 bills." A massive traffic jam ensued as astounded motorists abandoned their vehicles to merrily chase the cash. When lawmen arrived and ordered the gleeful pursuers to return the loot, some complied. But all together, the money chasers carried with them what a Wells Fargo spokesman later called a "significant" amount of money.