Have you ever found a green dollar bill just lying there on the street? Have you ever discovered a ten-dollar bill caught along a chain-link fence, where the wind had blown it, and picked up that paper money, slipped it into your pocket, thinking, "Finders keepers, losers weepers"?
If you have found a small treasure along your way, you experienced the same thrill of joy felt by three boys in Minot on a summer day in July of 1944.
These three boys, Darrell Niemeyer, Leonard Popow, and Gerald Gausvik were just walking around Minot's South Hill when they found an odd-looking old tin can sitting alongside the street. As boys are likely to do, they started kicking the can down the road.
It was a one-pound Jewel Tea Company Chocolate Malted Milk tin, and it seemed a little too heavy to contain only malted milk powder. Their kicking partially opened the top of the can, and sand began leaking out, not malted milk powder, as the boys had presumed. After much kicking, little sand remained, and the boys saw some green paper filling the bottom of the can.
Curious, they unrolled the green paper and found a wad of twenty-dollar bills, then another wad, and another, and another, until they had more than $500 in paper money.
Excited, they ran to Darrell Niemeyer's nearby home, and Darrell's parents, Marjorie and Guido, did the right thing, they informed the police.
On this date in 1944, a newspaper reported: "3 Minot Boys Find $500 In Old Tin Can." Minot Police Chief W. E. Slaybaugh investigated the origins of the money.
Some days later, local real estate man E. H. Stenvick claimed the treasure. Stenvick insisted the tin can had come from a tiny one-room house, measuring 12 by 14 feet, that he had recently purchased. Stenvick had seen "about 10 or 12" malted milk cans inside the house and had given them away, thinking they were worthless.
After the boys found the cash, which totaled $640, Stenvick said it should be his money.
Darrell Niemeyer's parents, however, claimed it on behalf of the boys.
The case went to district court, and after two days of testimony, a jury awarded the cash to the boys, who divided it equally three ways. As for real estate man Mr. Stenvick, doubtless he wept his loss, proving the old adage: "Finders keepers, losers weepers."
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Hoffbeck
Sources:
- “3 Minot Boys Find $500 In Old Tin Can,” Fargo Forum, July 16, 1944, p. 5.
- “Claims Cash In Tin Can,” Fargo Forum, July 18, 1944, p. 4.
- “Minot Boy, 10, Claims Money Found In Tin Can,” Fargo Forum, July 30, 1944, p. 7.
- “Boys Who Found $640 In Tin Can Will Share It,” Fargo Forum, November 28, 1944, p. 6.
- “Guido, Marjorie, Darrell Niemeyer,” Minot, Ward County, ND, 1940 U.S. Census.
