Dog eats $500

HELENA, Mont., April 8 (UPI) -- A Montana man said he is hoping the U.S. Department of Treasury will replace the five $100 bills he rescued in fragments from his dog's droppings.

Wayne Klinkel said he and his wife left their 12-year-old golden retriever, Sundance, alone in the car while they had a meal during a trip to Colorado to visit their daughter around Christmas, and they returned to the vehicle to find the canine had eaten five $100 bills, the Helena Independent Record, reported Monday.

"Sundance is notorious for eating anything and everything, so right away I knew what happened," Klinkel said.

"I thought 'You dumb SOB,'" Klinkel said. "I couldn't believe he did that."

Klinkel said he followed the dog around for days to retrieve fragments of the bills from Sundance's droppings, "but it wasn't nearly enough there to do anything with it."

However, Klinkel said his daughter recently came to Montana to visit and brought along more $100 pieces she discovered in dog droppings in her back yard when the snow melted.

Klinkel said workers at the Federal Reserve Bank in Helena instructed him to take the fragments to a local bank, but he was turned away. He said workers at a second bank told him to send the fragments to the Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The Independent Record said a federal employee who asked not to be named said the bills will be replaced if workers determine at least 51 percent of a bill is present. The process of verifying the fragments could take six months to two years.

"Guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens," he said.