11-16-2010, 03:43 PM
Washington Post: 
When Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife, County Council member Leslie Johnson, were arrested last Friday with tens of thousands in alleged payola, authorities said the couple found an uplifting place to hide it.
With FBI agents pounding on the door, Johnson, in a wiretapped conversation, advised his wife to cram $79,600 into her underwear. She managed to get it all into her bra, agents said.
But is it physically possible to stuff that much bread into one's bust without drawing notice?
Provided it's a proper-fitting bra, yes, it is. It just wouldn't be very comfortable.
The highest-value note currently lining wallets in the United States is the $100 bill. In the most convenient scenario, the Johnson family's loot would have been entirely in Benjamins. At a gram each, 796 bills would weigh around 1.75 pounds and, if stacked horizontally, stand about 3 1⁄2 inches in height, according to a rep from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Handed those measurements, Lindsey Palacios -- a manager at Alexandria bra boutique the Full Cup -- says she thinks that it could be done. Dubious at first, she changed her mind after experimenting with some bills borrowed from the store's till.
For the cash to fit, Johnson would have to spread the wealth around.
"It would require full use of the cups, straps and band," Palacios says.
It also helps that Johnson is a conservative dresser. "In her pictures she's always wearing a jacket, nothing form-fitting," explains Palacios. "It would completely cover up those bills, so you would never see it."
She places a maximum value of $10K per cup, explaining that the elastic would be the real money spot. "She could probably stuff 100 to 200 bills just underneath her armpit," Palacios postulates. "She could have hid everything in her band. And that wouldn't have poofed up her cup."
The stack of money below represents the amount Leslie Johnson was said to have stuffed in her bra when FBI agents came to her door Friday. The 790 bills weigh about 1.75 pounds and stand about 3 1⁄2 inches tall.
-- Aaron Leitko
When Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and his wife, County Council member Leslie Johnson, were arrested last Friday with tens of thousands in alleged payola, authorities said the couple found an uplifting place to hide it.
With FBI agents pounding on the door, Johnson, in a wiretapped conversation, advised his wife to cram $79,600 into her underwear. She managed to get it all into her bra, agents said.
But is it physically possible to stuff that much bread into one's bust without drawing notice?
Provided it's a proper-fitting bra, yes, it is. It just wouldn't be very comfortable.
The highest-value note currently lining wallets in the United States is the $100 bill. In the most convenient scenario, the Johnson family's loot would have been entirely in Benjamins. At a gram each, 796 bills would weigh around 1.75 pounds and, if stacked horizontally, stand about 3 1⁄2 inches in height, according to a rep from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Handed those measurements, Lindsey Palacios -- a manager at Alexandria bra boutique the Full Cup -- says she thinks that it could be done. Dubious at first, she changed her mind after experimenting with some bills borrowed from the store's till.
For the cash to fit, Johnson would have to spread the wealth around.
"It would require full use of the cups, straps and band," Palacios says.
It also helps that Johnson is a conservative dresser. "In her pictures she's always wearing a jacket, nothing form-fitting," explains Palacios. "It would completely cover up those bills, so you would never see it."
She places a maximum value of $10K per cup, explaining that the elastic would be the real money spot. "She could probably stuff 100 to 200 bills just underneath her armpit," Palacios postulates. "She could have hid everything in her band. And that wouldn't have poofed up her cup."
The stack of money below represents the amount Leslie Johnson was said to have stuffed in her bra when FBI agents came to her door Friday. The 790 bills weigh about 1.75 pounds and stand about 3 1⁄2 inches tall.
-- Aaron Leitko