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Toddler finds $1,300 stuffed inside book

While playing with a thrift store book bought earlier in the day for 25 cents, young Rhiannon Barnes uncovered a bundle of cash stuck between the pages.
/ Source: The Associated Press

MCDONOUGH, Ga. —  Rhiannon Barnes may be the luckiest 15-month-old ever. Or maybe her baby sitter is the fortunate one.

While playing with a thrift store book bought earlier in the day for 25 cents, Rhiannon uncovered $1,300 in cash stuck between the pages.

Her baby sitter Sheila Laughridge said she only bought the book at Rhiannon's insistence and was surprised when the toddler found a brown paper bag full of $100s, $50s, $20s and $10s.

Laughridge took the money, which dated as far back as the 1960s, to a local bank, where she received only $300 in exchange because most of the bills were in pieces. The rest of the tattered money was sent to the U.S. treasury department.

Lottery luck?
Rhiannon's mother, Shirley Barnes, joked that she's considering using her daughter's newfound talent more.

"What I want to do is put pieces of paper with numbers on them out on the table and have her pick them so that maybe we can win the lottery," she said.