The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Pet’s taste for cash ends in $4,000 windfall
A PET goldendoodle is firmly in the doghouse after eating an envelope containing more than £3,000 in cash.
Clayton and Carrie Law, from Pennsylvania, withdrew $4,000 (£3,153) from the bank and placed it on the kitchen counter ready to give to a contractor for work on their fence.
But their dog Cecil, described as “very particular” when it comes to food and known to leave steak untouched, found it impossible to resist and ate almost $2,000 within half an hour.
A trip to the vet revealed the sevenyear-old dog was not harmed, and within hours it was vomiting $100 bills and excreting whole and torn notes.
The couple followed Cecil when it went outside and bagging up its droppings, before sifting through them with soapy water to retrieve their cash.
A pair of marigolds and a face mask was the homemade PPE of choice, with the utility sink used to clean off the muck. The Laws taped the notes together by matching up their serial numbers. The $50 and $100 paper bills were then laid out and Sellotaped into as complete pieces as possible.
The bank accepted the patchedup money, with the couple losing only $450 of their $4,000, after telling them such incidents are surprisingly common.
Speaking to the Pittsburgh City Paper, Mrs Law said she never expected to become a money launderer.
In the US, unfit paper currency can be exchanged at a bank for entire bills provided it is more than 50 per cent present, its serial numbers match and it is clear what the value of the note is.
The ordeal was documented in an Instagram video and Cecil is now set to be the subject of a work of art by Mrs Law, who will immortalise the experience with the scraps of money that could not be returned for a refund.
“This is Cecil,” the pair’s post on social media begins. “He has never done anything bad in his life, until he ate $4,000.”