$40 desk contained $127,000 in bonds

WEYMOUTH, Mass., Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts man who bought a desk for $40 at an auction said a search for a missing knob turned up at least $127,000 worth of bonds.

Phillip LeClerc, 60, of Weymouth, said he bought the desk for $40 on Nov. 19 at a Kelley Auctions sale and he went searching through the desk's many compartments when a knob came loose from a small drawer and fell off.

LeClerc said he discovered the first envelope poking out from a small gap beneath a drawer and he soon had a stack of bonds that matured in 1992 and have since accumulated interest. He estimated the stack of bonds is worth a total of at least $127,000.

LeClerc contacted Marge Kelley, president of the auction company. Kelley said the bonds were returned to a man who said the money will go toward caring for his 94-year-old father.

"I've been doing this for 10 years and every day the stories get stranger and better and [more] fabulous," Kelley told the Boston Globe. "The gentleman whose family the bonds belong to, he can't even believe it. He said, 'I'm over the moon.'"