OAK ISLAND, NC (WECT) - It's not very often we hear about good news coming out of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a different kind of story.

Last December, Harry Schwarz, a member of the Army stationed at the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, went diving with some friends off the Cuban Coast. On the trip, his book bag went overboard. In that book bag was his military identification,
license, credit cards and $295 in cash.

"I freaked out big time," Schwarz said. "I thought it was a lost cause."

About eight months later, a wildlife officer looking for birds on the beach strand in Whiskey Island, Louisiana, found something buried in the sand. It was not a bird covered by oil, but a backpack. That bag belonged to Schwarz.

"I was in awe that someone had found my bag," Schwarz said.

The bag drifted about 1,250 miles from the Cuban coast to the Louisiana coast. All of the contents that Schwarz lost that day in December were still in the bag. The biologist who found the book bag sent all of the contents back to Schwarz's home in Oak Island, including the cash.

"I'm not saying the oil spill is a good thing, but if anything good came out of it, I got my money and bag back," Schwarz said.