Dateline: Trenton, NJ

This is not an intellectual property story. It does involve someone known to my wife and myself. On the opposite side of settlements for $612.5 million, the story illustrates how much that can be lost for a single dollar.

from the Trentonian, May 4, 2006:


Joey Damiano was severely beaten by six men at Washington Street and Roebling Avenue as he strolled on one of his daily walks around the neighborhood. The miserable thugs took a $1 bill that Joey was carrying, and a roll of toilet paper. They left him bleeding and blind on the sidewalk. Sight is gone from his right eye, which may have to be removed.

"I’m a grown man, and I almost started crying when I heard," said John Porfirio, whose family owns Porfirio’s Deli and Bakery on Anderson Street.

"The question is who did this," Tommasina Damiano (Joey's aunt) said. "It’s attempted murder to beat somebody close to death like that."