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Man Carves Runaway Bride on Piece of Toast

Posted on: Friday, 6 May 2005, 18:00 CDT

NEWTON, N.J. - A man has made the case of runaway Georgia bride Jennifer Wilbanks the toast of eBay. Perry Lonzello, 48, says he carved a rudimentary drawing of Wilbanks on a piece of toasted Wonder Bread and posted it on eBay on a whim.

"I just carved it on there real quick and put it on there as a joke," Lonzello told the Daily Record of Parsippany for Friday's newspapers.

As of about 5 p.m. Friday, Lonzello's eBay posting had 134,300 visits and 111 bids made on the toast, with a top bid of $15,400. Bidding closes Sunday.

The toast is still a long way from equaling the grilled cheese sandwich with an image of the Virgin Mary that sold for $28,000 on eBay in 2004.

Lonzello said he plans to donate money from the auction to charity.

Calls to phone listings for Lonzello rang unanswered Friday.

An eBay spokesman said the high bidding on the toast but another example of the auction site reflecting popular culture.

"It's just another example of eBay acting as a mirror of what's on people's minds, particularly what's on the news if it's funny or unusual," said eBay spokesman Hani Durzy.

With so many bids on the toast, Durzy advised that it might be wise for Lonzello to set up a system where he preapproves bidders to make sure they are legitimate, something Lonzello hadn't yet done.

Sometimes people make bids on such items without realizing that it is a legally binding sales contract, Durzy said.

Wilbanks' three-day disappearance last week, shortly before her scheduled 600-guest wedding, sparked a nationwide search, with family and friends afraid she was the victim of foul play.

It turned out that Wilbanks had run away on her own, fleeing by bus to Las Vegas and eventually to Albuquerque, N.M.

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Information from: Daily Record, http://www.dailyrecord.com

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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