Man nets $1G after discovering message in a bottle from thousands of miles away

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Now that's a pretty penny.

A 76-year-old man in Scotland discovered a message in a bottle that netted him $1,000 after an editor at a New York-based magazine dropped the bottle into the Atlantic Ocean over a year ago.

Henry Anderton said he found the bottle while cleaning Littlelure beach on the west coast of Mainland, Shetland, on Feb. 2, British news agency SWNS reported. Anderton, who cleans the beach at least once a month, said he was surprised at his find.

 A beach cleaner bagged $1,000 after finding a message in a bottle that was dropped thousands of miles away in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Henry Anderton, 76, found the glass bottle while carrying out a routine beach clean on the morning of February 2 at Littlelure beach on the west coast of Mainland, Shetland. (Credit: SWNS)

WORLD'S OLDEST MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE DISCOVERED ON AUSTRALIAN BEACH

“I came across the bottle and saw the message inside and read it when I got home," Anderton told SWNS, adding that the editor, Emmanuel Goldstein of New York-based 2600, dropped the bottle while onboard the Queen Mary II in December 2018.

“It’d been in the ocean for a year and a month," Anderton added. “It’d drifted with the Gulf Stream and took a right turn — it’s an extraordinary coincidence.”

Inside the bottle was a letter from 2600 that said the publication would be “astounded” if anybody found it. Anderton, who has lived in Shetland for 50 years, emailed Goldstein to say he had discovered the letter, to which Goldstein replied he was shocked and amazed.

Henry Anderton. (Credit: SWNS)

“I’ve written to people before but this is the first time I’ve had a response," Anderton explained. “I just emailed him [Goldstein] on the off chance. His reaction was extraordinary. He didn’t expect it to be found. He was quite amazed.”

As for the prize money, Anderton will use the $1,000 to renovate an old telephone box he bought for one British pound, turning it into a "mini-museum" of sorts, with information for tourists and a book exchange.

A 50-YEAR-OLD SOVIET MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE WASHED ASHORE IN ALASKA

The magazine said it would also donate $1,000 to a charity of Anderton's choice, The Ocean Cleanup.

In August 2019, a message in a bottle that was cast into the ocean from a Soviet ship 50 years ago washed ashore on a remote Alaskan island.

The world’s oldest message in a bottle was discovered on a beach in Western Australia in March 2018, almost 132 years after it was thrown into the ocean.

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Fox News' James Rogers contributed to this story.