STILLWATER, N.J. - A man who auctioned off a slice of toast carved with his drawing of the runaway bride feels burned because the winning bidder has refused to pay for the item.

Perry Lonzello, 48, of Stillwater, used a piece of toasted Wonder Bread as the canvas for his rudimentary portrait of Georgia bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks, and posted it at the online auction site eBay on a whim.

The auction debuted with a bid of $1.11 on May 1, but that amount grew quickly after the item drew national attention. And when the auction ended Sunday, Lonzello said a California man had submitted the winning bid of $15,400.

“The purchaser reneged on the sale,” Lonzello told The Star-Ledger of Newark, adding that the man was no longer returning his calls. “He said he was goofing around. I think some legal action will be coming out of this.”

It’s called company

loyalty, or maybe fitness

KOKOMO, Ind. - Workers at two DaimlerChrysler’s transmission plants better allow more time to walk in from the parking lot if they drive Fords or General Motors vehicles.

A new policy that takes effect Monday designates about 80 percent of employee parking spaces for Chrysler vehicles only and forces workers to park much further away if they drive a car or truck made by a competing manufacturer.

Workers have been told that non-Chrysler vehicles parked in the reserved areas will be towed to Indianapolis at a cost of $200.

“It is a management initiative, but we believe it has wide support from the employees,” Chrysler spokesman Edward Saenz said. “It’s a local decision.”

How do you

mumble online?

BOSTON - Boston Mayor Thomas Menino isn’t afraid to joke about his own oratory skills - or lack thereof - but it appears his re-election campaign wants to stop his critics from beating him to the punch line.

The Menino Committee has bought the rights to many Web domain names that could be used to mock the mayor’s reputation for mumbling his way through speeches.

The list of names they purchased includes meninomumbles.com, mumblesmenino.org and mumblesmeninoformayor.net.

“We bought both positive and negative domain names,” the mayor’s campaign manager, Beth Leonard, told The Boston Globe in Monday’s editions.

She wouldn’t elaborate.