Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 20/99) - When a big breeze stole a $100 bill from Grace Burton's hand Christmas Day, she thought the money was gone forever.

As it turned out, the cash had been temporarily deposited in a nearby snowbank.

Yellowknifer Ken Trimble, who had heard Burton had lost the cash in the neighbourhood, would later withdraw the bill from the snowbank and return it to its rightful owner.

On Jan. 7, Trimble walked up to the Lottery booth at Extra Foods where Burton works and handed her the $100 bill she'd given up for lost.

"On Christmas Day, I was walking down to Bruno's to get change because I was flying to Toronto the next day and taking my dog. I didn't want to show up at the airport first thing with $100," she said.

But just as she approached the store, a big breeze kicked up and stole the bill from Burton's hand.

"It was windy. Windier than I've ever seen it in Yellowknife. I watched it blow up in the air and it never came down," she said.

Burton searched for the bill but was unable to find it.

"I talked to several people in the area that morning."

One of the people she spoke with was Ken Trimble's wife. The Trimbles live right near Bruno's.

"He (Trimble) wouldn't take a reward. I offered him half," Burton said.

Getting the cash back makes Burton "one for two" when it comes to returned $100 bills.

A while back, she left a $100 bill atop a bag of potatoes at Extra Foods. That cash went unreturned.

Burton still has the bill Trimble returned. And it's folded just the way he found it.

She said for now she just plans to hang onto the $100 bill -- for good luck.

Who knows, Burton might just put some of that cash toward a few lottery tickets for herself.

She has seen more than once how luck can pay off.

Asked what the biggest lottery pay out she has seen from her Extra Foods Lotto 649 booth, Burton said about a year and a half ago a man won $765,000. And once a month that same man still buys a few lottery tickets, Burton noted.