MONTAGUE, Mass. — Cash fluttering in the breeze might have seemed like a gift from heaven, but anyone here who grabbed some of it is being asked to please give it back. The money — a total of $1,100 — belonged to 83-year-old Mary Olive Corbiere, who lost it after a freak accident.
Corbiere was putting her shopping bags in her car when a wind gust pushed her shopping cart — still containing her purse and cane — into the back of a nearby delivery truck, where it got stuck as the oblivious driver pulled away.
The cart was dragged for blocks. Witnesses said that when the purse burst open, strangers stopped and grabbed the flying cash, which Corbiere had withdrawn for holiday shopping and bills. Officers found Corbiere’s tattered checkbook and cane — but little cash. They are urging people not to be Grinches and return any of the money they might have found.
Corbiere didn’t even bother to retrieve the battered purse from police.
“That’s no use to me now,” she said. “What I really needed badly is my cane, and I am lucky I did get that back.”
