Builder gets his lost pay packet back

Just before Christmas, a barman in a London pub found an envelope containing GBP 600 on the floor under a table.

The pub's owners decided it must be someone's pay packet, but the only information they had was the name Mariusz on the front, and film from the pub's security camera. They thought the quickest way to find the owner was to use Twitter and Facebook. So they wrote a post asking people to retweet the story, and help the owner get his money back.

Over the next six days the post was shared 1.5m times on Twitter and 3m times on Facebook, by people including JK Rowling. Eventually the son of Mariusz, who had gone back to Poland for Christmas, saw the post and told his father.

Now Mariusz has been back to the pub to collect his envelope – and left a generous present for the man who found it under the chair.

Police use Christmas to catch criminals

Almost 70 suspected criminals were caught by police in one part of the UK who pretended they had won a free gift.

The police sent vouchers for a box of luxury food to the last known addresses of more than 400 people suspected of different offences. The voucher asked them to call a number to arrange a time when they would be at home to collect the delivery. 21 of the people were arrested in just two days.

Lots of people leave London

Almost 300,000 London residents left the city to live in a different part of the UK in one year recently, the highest level for 10 years.

This is because housing in London costs a lot, and also because councils are moving some homeless families to cheaper areas of the country.

The biggest number of Londoners went to live in Birmingham, followed by Brighton and Hove. Towns around London were also popular, as were Bristol and Manchester.

The moves are causing problems in some areas, because the ex-London residents can afford to spend more on a home and prices have risen. In some places, they are jokingly called DFLs, which stands for Down From London.

Chinese bowls make woman rich

Sixty years ago, a man liked collecting Chinese bowls and vases. He would go into junk shops, but never paid more than GBP 1 for anything he liked. He then had to hide them because his wife did not like his collection.

Last month, the man's daughter decided to sell three of the bowls, to pay for a new carpet for her home. To her surprise, they were sold for over GBP 75,000. Now she may have enough money to retire from work.