River cleaners find ATM in St. Francois Co.

DESLOGE, Mo. (AP) -- Talk about giving new meaning to the term river bank.

A crew doing cleanup work at the Big River in eastern Missouri over the weekend found an ATM machine. It took a pickup truck with a tow chain to drag the ATM out of the muck. Inside the machine volunteers found a fish -- but no money.

Officials aren't sure where it came from, but Stream Team coordinator Jerry "Chip" Barton called the St. Francois County Sheriff's Department. The ATM was hauled to the jail for inspection.

In addition to the ATM, volunteers removed about two tons of trash from the Big River and its tributaries. The haul included 48 tires, a clothes dryer, a couch, a swimming pool, 80 bags of assorted trash and about 300 pounds of metal.

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Information from: Park Hills Daily Journal, www.dailyjournalonline.com.