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| Inmate's world-record clover collection being threatened |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/21/2005 |
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George Kaminski has spent more than half of his 53 years behind bars for burglary and firing a gun at a police officer, among other crimes. But if you think he's happier to have spent the last 18 months in relatively nicer digs _ a minimum-security prison _ you'd be dead wrong. "There are no four-leaf clovers here," Kaminski told The Herald of Sharon for Friday's editions. As a result, Kaminski has added only a handful of the lucky charms to his world-record collection of 72,927 four-leaf clovers _ all collected on the grounds of various Pennsylvania prisons _ as recognized by Guinness World Records. Kaminski would be resting easy, except that a 73-year-old retiree, Edward Martin Sr., of Soldotna, a city on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, claims to have collected more than 76,000 of the clovers. With his city's help, Martin has applied to Guinness to be recognized as the new record holder. The Guinness Web site still lists Kaminski's record _ established in 1995 _ as the official one, but Martin said it's only a matter of time before he's the world's clover king. "This is just amazing. I've got file cabinets full of clovers," said Kathy Dawson, Soldotna's mayoral assistant. "The mayor had kids from the schools counting all these clovers, and there are still more to be counted." Kaminski said Martin's isn't a fair fight. "The guy's got the whole world _ I have two or three acres to look for" clovers, Kaminski said from the visitor's room at the State Correctional Institution-Mercer, about 55 miles north of Pittsburgh. But Kaminski claims to have an ace in the hole _ an estimated 15,000 clovers stored at his sister's house in Bloomfield, Pa., that have never been certified by Guinness as part of his collection. Kaminski's sister keeps the clovers pressed in about 30 photo albums and if Kaminski could get Guinness to officially count them, the record would balloon to about 88,000 clovers. Kaminski said he started collecting clovers in 1995, when he was halfway through the minimum range of his 30- to 133-year sentence for trying to shoot the officer and other crimes. He was charged three months after finishing a five-year sentence for burglary that he said was fueled by his heroin use. Kaminski was giving a younger inmate advice, "You can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it," when he saw his first clover and picked it up. At that time, the world record was 7,000 clovers _ but Kaminski put his mind to it and collected 13,382 in four months. That earned him a place in the Guinness book that has updated his total as it has grown. |
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