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Teen Fisherman Reels In Wallet Containing $2,000 And Finds The Owner

August 25, 2023

In a remarkable stroke of luck, a teenage fisherman in Minnesota reeled in a lost wallet containing $2,000 in cash and then managed to reunite it with its grateful owner.

Credit: WDAY / Inforum.com

Connor Halsa, 14, was on a family fishing outing on Lake of the Woods - a scenic 1,727 square mile (1.1 million acre) lake astride the Canadian–United States boundary.

"I thought I had a huge fish, so I set the hook really hard," Connor told WDAY.

But it was no fish. It was a wallet full of money.

"My cousin opened the wallet up, and he said some words you probably shouldn't say, and he showed everyone, and we took the money out and let it dry out," Connor recalled.

Inside the billfold was $2,000 in cash.

"My dad said we should give it to the person, and I said we should, too," Connor said.

Connor and his family found a business card inside the wallet. They made the call that would lead to Jim Denney, an Iowa farmer who was fishing on Lake of the Woods a year prior when he dropped his wallet overboard.

Credit: WDAY / Inforum.com

"The odds of ever finding or hooking a billfold in 20 feet of water — I don't think there's a number," Denney said.

Denny made the trip from Iowa to Moorhead, where he met the Halsa family and even offered to give Connor money, but the teen turned him down.

"To meet people like that, who are that honest, I tried to get them to take the money, and they wouldn't do it," Denney said.

"I would take Connor as a grandson any day, and I would fight for him any day," he said.

Connor with Jim Denney / WDAY