Yekke: That story is older than the Chazon Ish. My great-grandfather told me that he heard it as a kid about R’ Akiva Eiger. I’d guess it’s one of those that gets recycled using the contemporary Gedolim of the time. The story is the important part there anyway, not who it was about.
557: I find that second story about R’ Akiva Eiger impossible to believe.