FOLEY, Ala. (WKRG) — A Foley woman is counting her blessings this Christmas. On the same day she learned she needed a costly medical procedure, she got nearly 12-thousand dollars back that was stolen almost 20 years ago.

Foley police say a man who’d bought a suitcase at Waterfront Mission reported that he found $11,500 dollars in travelers’ checks inside. This person is no Grinch, so he reported it to police. He had bought the suitcase months earlier, but decided to clean it out for an upcoming trip. That’s when he found the checks in a pouch.

The checks were signed, so police were able to track Karen McGurk down and return the money to her. She said she bought them in 1997, and they were stolen in the early 2000s. She didn’t realize that travelers’ checks never expire. So she gets all of the money back.

In a twist worth of Charles Dickens, she had learned the very same day that she needed an expensive medical procedure she couldn’t afford. “That was most definitely a Christmas blessing,” Foley Police said in a press release. INDEED!

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