- A teen in Minnesota was fishing with his family on a lake when he reeled in a wallet.
- The wallet was filled with $2,000 in cash and had been dropped in the lake a year earlier.
A 14-year-old in Minnesota hoping to catch some walleye pulled in something entirely different — and a lot more valuable.
Connor Halsa was recently fishing on Lake of the Woods in northwestern Minnesota with his family when the line went taut, WDAY-TV reported Tuesday. "I thought I had a big fish, and I set the hook really hard," he told the outlet.
But when he reeled in the catch and his cousin netted it, they realized it wasn't a fish at all, but a wallet stuffed with $2,000 in cash.
"My cousin Brandon opened the wallet up and he was like — he said some words that you probably shouldn't say," Halsa told WDAY, adding they took the bills out and laid them out to dry.
Inside the wallet was also a business card, so Halsa's family used it to track down the owner: Jim Denney, a farmer in Iowa who dropped the billfold a year ago while fishing at that same lake, which was more than 70 miles long and wide.
"I tell you what, if I didn't if I got the billfold in my hands. It is still hard for me to believe," Denney told WDAY. He traveled to Minnesota to pick up the wallet and cash. He also gifted Halsa a custom-made cooler and took the teen's family out to dinner.
Denney also offered Halsa a reward, but he would not accept it. "We didn't really work hard for the money. He did, so it was his money," Halsa said.
The incident was reminiscent of another curious catch recently reeled in by a group of anglers in Florida, including Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
Castor was fishing with her family in the Florida Keys in July when they pulled in a black package that was bobbing in the water — and filled with $1.1 million worth of cocaine.
That 70-pound catch was not, however, returned to its owner.