Old fruitcake brings $525 for charity

CINCINNATI, Dec. 25 (UPI) -- How much is a 70-year-old fruitcake worth? For a winning auction bidder the answer is $525, which will go to help the homeless in Ohio, the cake's owner said.

The fruitcake was baked and sold by a Cincinnati-area Kroger store in 1941 and wound up back at the store in 1971. A note left with the returned fruit cake said it was one of six bought by a man named E.F. Helbing, WHIO-TV, Dayton, reported. The note said the owner had been carting it around for decades and was finally unloading it on its maker, the Kroger store.

Store manager Frank Bates, now 86, took possession of it and kept it until recently when he gave it to Elite Estate Group owner Larry Chaney, whose firm decided to auction it off for charity.

While even higher offers -- some over $1,000 -- came in later, the winning bid of $525 came Thursday night from a man in Arizona who asked to remain anonymous, WHIO-TV reported.

The money will go to a church outreach program, providing food and other items for the homeless in the Cincinnati area, the TV station said.