Brighten Your Day

Parents In Luck After Toddler Shreds More Than $1,000 In Cash

October 6, 2018

Ben and Jackee Belnap of Salt Lake City, Utah, discovered their savings for season football tickets had been completely shredded by their 2-year-old son.

@Benbelnap / Twitter

The couple says their son, Leo, helps them shred junk mail.

The money was locked in a file cabinet until it was time to pay Ben's parents for the tickets, but soon after they placed the envelope full of cash on the counter to deliver it, it disappeared.

"So me and my wife had been saving up to pay for our @Utah_Football tickets in cash," Belnap wrote on Twitter. "We pulled our money out yesterday to pay my mom for the season... Well we couldn’t find the envelope until my wife checked the shredder. Yup. 2 year old shredded $1,060."

But it turns out the US Treasury has a team of experts that piece destroyed cash together again and will repay the amount in full.

Ben called the department's Mutilated Currency Division and was instructed to send them the shredded cash in Ziplock bags.

"I called the guy the next morning and he said, 'Oh, we might be able to help you here,' and I was shocked," Ben said. "He said, 'Bag it up in little Ziploc bags, mail it to D.C., and in one to two years, you'll get your money back'."

Jackee says the couple learned their lesson and won’t be leaving valuable envelopes, or anything that could inadvertently end up in the shredder, out again.