History for Chron

Spokane Police dispatched every available officer to a check-cashing store on North Division only to find the reported heist was actually a scene from the daytime soap opera “General Hospital.”

The case of mistaken crime occurred when two women walked into the Check-X-Change and saw a man with a gun displayed on a television monitor. Convinced it was an armed robbery occurring in the business’s back room, they called police, which sent a massive response.

Unaware of the TV show, officers surrounded the store and called into 20-year-old clerk Chris Wiltse, who reported no problems.

Wholesale prices shot up 1.6% as turmoil in the Persian Gulf caused a record spike in gasoline prices.

The U.S. Labor Department blamed the 20.6% increase in fuel costs, the biggest jump since 1947, on the Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.