Nation in brief: Cranky customer rewards waitress

For nearly seven years Melina Salazar did her best to put on a smile and tend to the every need of her most loyal and cantankerous customer.

She made sure his food was as hot as he wanted, even if it meant he burned his mouth. And she smiled through his demands and curses. The 89-year-old Walter “Buck” Swords obviously appreciated it, leaving the waitress $50,000 and a 2000 Buick when he died.

“I still can’t believe it,” the Luby’s cafeteria employee told Harlingen television station KGBT-TV.

New York

Christie’s sued over ‘Trek’ props

A Trekkie who paid $6,000 for a poker visor that was supposedly worn by the android Data on the television show “Star Trek: The Next Generation” claims in a lawsuit against Christie’s auction house that the prop is a fake.

Ted Moustakis, of Towaco, N.J., said he began to doubt the authenticity of the visor and other items he purchased at an auction of CBS Paramount props in 2006, after he brought it to a convention in August to have it autographed by the actor who played Data, Brent Spiner.

According to the lawsuit, Spiner recognized the visor as the one that had been sold by Christie’s and told Moustakis that it wasn’t the real deal. The actual visor had been sold by the actor himself some time ago.

Christie’s spokesman Rik Pike stood behind the authenticity of the auction and said the disgruntled buyer’s case had no merit.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan, demands millions of dollars in punitive damages and a refund for the visor and two other items Moustakis bought at the 2006 auction: a table that was part of a set on “The Next Generation” and a uniform that was in Data’s wardrobe. Moustakis said he paid $6,600 for the table and $11,400 for the uniform.