Government reimburses man for ‘mutt-ilated’ currency

HELENA, Mont. — A Montana man who painstakingly gathered and reassembled parts of five $100 bills eaten by his golden retriever has been reimbursed by the U.S. Treasury for the “mutt-ilated” currency.

Wayne Klinkel of Helena received a $500 check on Monday, the Independent Record (http://bit.ly/1540xEA) reported.

“It was great to get the check after all the crap I went through,” Klinkel, a graphic artist at the newspaper, joked.

His 12-year-old dog, Sundance, downed all but half of one of the bills in December. Sundance, a rescue from a Wyoming animal shelter, snacked on the cash left in the family vehicle while Klinkel and his wife ate at a restaurant, but left a $1 bill untouched. They were on a road trip to visit their daughter in Colorado.

Klinkel carefully picked through the dog’s droppings over the next few days to recover parts of the bills and his daughter recovered more when the snow melted in the spring.

Klinkel cleaned and carefully reassembled the bills, put them in plastic bags and sent them to the U.S. Treasury in April with an explanation.

He got a receipt for the bills 10 days later, and didn’t hear from the Treasury until he received the check.

“I gave Sundance a pat, showed it to him and told him not to eat it,” said Klinkel.

He said there wasn’t any correspondence with the check, but the memo section in the bottom left read: “MUT.CURR REFUND.”

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Information from: Independent Record, http://www.helenair.com