14-Year-Old Makes a Lucky Catch While Fishing: A Wallet With $2,000 Inside

A Minnesota teen thought he'd caught a giant fish while vacationing with his family days before the start of his freshman year of high school, local station WDAY-TV reported.

But when Connor Halsa, 14, reeled in his catch on Lake of the Woods along the northern tip of Minnesota, he realized it was not a fish but instead a wallet stuffed with cash.

“My cousin Brandon... he opened the wallet up, and he … said some words that you probably shouldn’t say," Connor recalled. "And then he said there was some money in it, and he showed everyone, and then we took the money out and placed it all on the dashboard to let it dry off."

The family later counted up the cash, which totaled $2,000. They quickly agreed that they should try to return the money to its original owner.

Conner and his dad used a moss-strewn business card to locate Jim Denney, a farmer in Iowa.

Denney said he was fishing on the lake a year ago when a sudden current knocked his wallet out of his back pocket. He had no idea it was missing until he was set to pay the bill for his stay at a nearby resort.

“They had to kind of float me the money for the whole deal,” he told WDAY. “Was the suckiest feeling I have ever been. I didn’t have a penny on me.”

The lake spans about 1 million acres, while the billfold was roughly the size of a deck of cards.
Denney visited Connor and his family in Moorhead, Minnesota, and suggested that the teen keep the money for himself. Connor insisted on returning it, so Denney instead gave him a custom-made cooler — then took the teen's family out for dinner.

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