No windfall for Minn. sheriff's deputy who finds $3K blowing in breeze

The sheriff's deputy scurried about, snatching up $100 bills by the dozens fluttering in the prairie breeze of central Minnesota's farm country.

By the time she was done, the deputy had found $3,010, which was soon returned to the rightful owner.

The windfall of cash unfolded late Friday afternoon along Stearns County Road 3, just south of County Road 131, on the western edge of Brockway Township, the Sheriff's Office reported Monday.

The patrolling deputy, Shirley Zwack, was driving south on County Road 3 about 20 miles northwest of St. Cloud and a car heading the other way "kicked up something that kind of looked like leaves," said Sheriff's Lt. Jon Lentz.

Zwack thought to herself, " 'Hey, I think that was a hundred-dollar bill' " and then pulled over, the lieutenant added.

For the next half-hour, the deputy grabbed one Benjamin after another and wondered how she was going to figure out whose money it was.

Just as Zwack was ready to drive off, the deputy "sees another flicker" and suspected it was more wayward cash. Turned out it was the withdrawal slip, Lentz said.

The financial institution, the Central Minnesota Credit Union branch in Avon, verified details of the withdrawal with the deputy, the lieutenant said.

The credit union customer, whose identity has yet to be disclosed, arrived Saturday at the Sheriff's Office and claimed the money. He said the money was for transmission work on his vehicle, Lentz said.

Chuck Friederichs, the credit union's chief operating officer, said "it sounds like a very fortunate situation for the customer to have someone drive over it and to have it be a sheriff's deputy" so close by at the time.