Man finds mysterious check 100 miles away from town ravaged by tornado

FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. — A check written 40 years ago mysteriously appeared in a Floyd County backyard a few days ago.

The check came from Fultondale, Alabama, the site of a deadly tornado last month. It ended up in Cedartown Fire Chief Felix White’s backyard -- over 100 miles away.

Channel 2′s Wendy Corona talked to Felix White, who discovered the check about 10 feet from his deck when he took his son’s dog out for a walk.

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“I picked it up fully expecting it to be a check from my neighbor next door, and then I noticed it was from Fultondale,” White said. “I think it’s just incredible that the check made it that far, first of all, and (was) actually still legible.”

The check was written out in 1981 to a business named Standard Distributions and signed by a couple named Ronald and Phyllis Handley.

“The company is not even in existence anymore,” White said. “The bank the check was wrote off of is out of business now.”

White, a self-proclaimed weather junkie, was worried about the people who had been in possession of the check.

A EF-3 tornado tore through Fultondale on Jan. 25, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring dozens of others.

“It’s just surreal to think that this comes from someone’s house that’s most likely totally destroyed,” White said. “My first thought, of course, being in fire service, is are these people even alive?”

Aside from the cool discovery and getting lost in the thought of how far the check traveled, White wants to know how the couple listed on the check, the Handleys, fared through the storm.

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