A pair of enterprising thieves took a car wash to the cleaners: They used a powerful shop vacuum to suck quarters out of a coin-operated machine, police said.  

The duo drew the suspicion of a passing police officer and failed to make a clean getaway.

“They had a good plan. They were enterprising. If they were successful they could have returned night after night,” said Sgt. Gary Young in the Salt Lake City suburb of Cottonwood Heights. “More often thieves just use a crowbar. They get an A for effort but an F for execution.”

Todd Herburg, 53, and Scott Luker, 55, were arrested on suspicion of burglary.

More charges are pending. What gave the men away was a crude attempt at altering their vehicle’s license plates. They used a piece of black electrical tape to change a “D’’ to a “B,” Young said.

The bandits were at work for about 12 minutes, sucking coins out of the coin dispensary of a stand-alone vacuum cleaner at the car wash, Young said.

They used their own shop vacuum to do the work, he said. It was powered by an inverter rigged inside their Jeep SUV to produce household current.

Young said the coin-operated machine probably held no more than $30.

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You Have to Pay to Play

Thousands of people were splattering each other with tons of tomatoes in the annual “Tomatina” battle in recession-hit Spain, with the debt-burdened town charging participants entry fees this year for the first time.

Bunol town says some 20,000 people took part in the August, hour-long street bash, inspired by a food fight among kids back in 1945.

Participants were this year charged 10 euros ($13) to foot the cost of the festival. Residents do not pay.

Bunol, with 10,000 inhabitants, has a debt of some 5 million euros.

The town said six trucks brought 130 tons of ripe tomatoes to the scene. Portable showers were set up for revelers to clean up after the battle.