DES MOINES, Iowa - Imagine finding $20,000. Now imagine not keeping it.
That's the story of Tim Titterington and his son, Dylan.
It happened after the Fourth of July weekend as Titterington, 48, and Dylan, 16, were headed to their farm outside Milford.
"A semi drove past, and it looked like confetti flying around," Titterington said.
It was $20 bills and receipts from the wallet of Jody Gardner, 54, of Omaha, Neb.
Gardner and her sisters had just closed their dead father's bank accounts. Gardner's share totaled about $20,000 in cashier's checks and $1,000 in cash and coins. She stuffed it all in her billfold.
On the trip back to the family home on Lake Okoboji, Gardner stopped to buy groceries in Milford. She drove off with the billfold on the roof of the van.
"I can't believe I did it, but I did it," she said.
Titterington and his son said they spent about an hour tracking down checks, cash and everything else that had flown out of Gardner's billfold.
Back home, Dylan Titterington found an emergency contact number among the contents. The Titteringtons reached a friend of Gardner's, who gave them directions to the lake home.
Dylan found Gardner on a dock behind the house. He asked her if she'd lost her billfold.
"I had no idea," she said. "It was an absolute miracle for me."
She offered the Titteringtons a $100 reward; they refused.
Mystery Lottery Winner Donates $1.8 Million Ticket
TOKYO - Officials in western Japan were marveling on Sunday at the generosity of a mystery philanthropist who donated a $1.8 million lottery ticket to help victims of recent torrential rainstorms.
In an extremely rare display of charity, a winning lottery ticket good for a 200 million yen ($1.82 million) grand prize was mailed to the governor of Fukui prefecture on Friday with a note saying it was intended as a donation for rain victims.
"I am sending a lottery ticket that is blessed with luck hoping that it will be of some help to the people who had the misfortune of suffering damages," the letter said.
Hiroko Imatomi, a Fukui prefecture official who first spotted the mail, said the note convinced her the sender was sincere.
"It was a wonderful letter ... It was definitely not intended as a hoax or a joke," she said.
"It must be from a rare type of person who has a big heart and hopes it will help people who suffered a lot," Imatomi said.
The sender used a false name and local authorities have no way to find out who sent the winning ticket, which has been confirmed as being authentic, she said.
Torrential downpours pounded Fukui prefecture on July 17-18, killing three people, injuring 17 and destroying or damaging more than 200 homes.
;D ;DDave
Admirable none-the-less.
