Sept. 3, 2026

Goosey the hero goose

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac presents five good news stories: an Italian lottery player in Bitonto won about $1.15 million but mistakenly threw away the ticket after a store scanner said it was “non-payable,” and a local garbage company safely sorted the collected trash to recover the intact winning ticket; a juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtle found stranded in Wales in December 2023 was rescued by Anglesey Sea Zoo and, after 2.5 years of permits and planning, will be transported in a temperature-controlled crate back to Texas via helicopter, road, and a British Airways cargo flight; JK Boots in Spokane turned its HQ into a rest stop for wildfire firefighters and is giving away new boots; a pet goose named Goosey alerted a Texas family to a barn fire; and a 1973 message-in-a-bottle note from Lori Blair was found in New Jersey, traced to her sister, and will be framed after Lori’s 2019 death.

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WEBVTT

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Boy, the fall's closing in on your pal Johnny Mac.

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I had to teach a college class this morning. Luckily,

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it's not Labor Day yet, so it's pseudo-summer still. Hi,

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I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories. Good news

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for an Italian lottery player. Well, the good news, he

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won a million dollars. The problem, he threw away the ticket. Oopsie!

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But more good news, a garbage company found it. The

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winning ticket had been purchased in the town of Betonto

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for a million-day drawing. The player used the same set

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of numbers he normally played, 2, 4, 8, 10, and 51.

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After the drawing, they scanned the ticket at a store.

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The machine said, yeah, that ticket's non-payable. So he threw

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it out. Only later did the family realize what non-payable means.

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Not that it's worthless. It means it was too large

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to ask the guy at the store, like, hey, I won.

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Give me a million dollars. Stores don't have a million

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dollars sitting around. The numbers had hit. The ticket was

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worth around $ 1. 15 million. So they went rushing back to

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the store, but the garbage had already been collected. What

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a nightmare. Can you imagine? So they called the local

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garbage company. Employees figured out which truck had picked up

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the store's trash. But now there was another problem. The

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truck couldn't just be dumped because of contamination concerns. So

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they had to contact another facility where the load could

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be safely sorted. Then employees started digging through the garbage. Eventually,

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they found a torn bag containing discarded lottery tickets. Most

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of them were damaged, but the winning ticket was still intact.

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I'm stressed reading you this story. Good news for a

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sea turtle. The sea turtle is returning home after somehow

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finding itself 5,000 miles away from where it belongs. The

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story starts in December of 2023. A dog walker found

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a tiny sea turtle in Stranded on a beach in Wales,

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the turtle, about nine inches long, was a juvenile Kemp's

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Ridley sea turtle, normally found in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Experts believe the turtle had been swept far off course,

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you think, and eventually became cold stunned, basically suffering severe hypothermia.

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The team at the Angsley Sea Zoo took him in,

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named him Rosie, after the area where he was found.

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Rosie recovered. But how do you get them home? Returning

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an endangered animal across international borders requires permits, government approvals,

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transportation agreements, and a lot of coordination. It took two

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and a half years. They finally figured it out, and

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the turtle is going back to Texas. A special temperature-controlled

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crate is being built for the turtle. Volunteer helicopter pilot

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Darren is going to fly the turtle from Angsley to

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an airport near Heathrow. From there, the turtle will travel

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by road to Heathrow. and then aboard a British Airways

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cargo flight to Houston. Then, sea turtle vet Dr. Joe

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will grab the turtle while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

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Service figures out the paperwork. There's some urgency. The zoo

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wants to get the turtle home while it's still small

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enough to travel safely in the crate. I'm stressed reading

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you that story, too. This is a very stressful episode

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of the show. All right. What's story number three, John?

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A boot company in Spokane, Washington, turned its HQ into

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a refuge for firefighters battling devastating wildfires, and they're giving

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away brand new work boots to crews who need them.

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Nice job by JK Boots, a local manufacturer that's been

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making wildland firefighting boots for about 20 years. When a

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major fire broke out around Spokane, the company decided to

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use what it had. The building became a place where

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firefighters could stop for food, coffee, cold drinks, showers, and

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a place to rest. They posted on social, a place

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to wash up, cool off, and rest. Our break room

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is yours. Then they started giving away boots. At first,

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the goal was 50 pairs of boots. They blew past that. Tim,

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the owner, said, we're just going to keep going. I

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don't know when it's going to stop. Local residents have

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also donated food and supplies. Volunteers helped distribute everything. Brad

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is an expert on firefighters and boots. He says to

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buy a set of boots like that today is like

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600 bucks for some of these kids. That's half a

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month's wages. We're overwhelmed by the fact that everybody's lost.

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They've lost everything and they're still rallying around a firefighters here.

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It's really something. In Texas, a pet goose is being

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hailed as a hero after alerting his sleeping family to

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a fire and they're born. The goose's name is Goosey.

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And apparently Goosey takes neighborhood watch very seriously. Bert said

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he had fallen asleep in front of the TV, suddenly

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heard Goosey honking outside. Now, if that's me, I would

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have been like, shut up, trying to sleep. However, security

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cameras showed that Goosey wasn't being annoying. Goosey had noticed

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flames were breaking out in the barn behind the house.

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Bert said, I just casually came outside and saw a

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fire billowing out there. I grabbed a water hose and

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ran over there. He was able to put out the

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fire before it spread further. All the animals inside the barn,

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including Goosey, escaped safely. Bert's wife Chelsea said, we're beyond

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grateful everyone is safe and we couldn't be more proud

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of Goosey. He truly is our little hero. And we've

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got another message in a bottle for you. This one,

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a bottle tossed in the ocean by a nine-year-old girl

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in 1973, has turned up half a century later. John

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was cleaning wetlands in Upper Township, New Jersey. He spotted

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a sealed bottle containing a note. The note reads, This

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bottle was adrift on August 20th, 1973 on 2nd Street Beach,

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Ocean City. As my captors were transporting me to an

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island off the shore in the Atlantic, please notify my

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family that a band of ruthless sponge fishermen are forcing

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me to dive for them in shark-infested waters. Please return

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this note to my home, and you may have saved

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my life. Thank you, Lori Blair. Hmm. Well, John posted

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a picture of the note online, hoping to find Lori.

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Lori's sister Allison saw it. Now, what do you know?

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Laurie had invented the whole thing. There were no pirates

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forcing her to dive in shark-infested waters when she was

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nine years old. Laurie had invented the whole story when

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she was nine and dictated the letter to 16-year-old Allison,

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who had better handwriting. They launched the bottle from Ocean City.

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There is a bittersweet part of the story. Laurie the

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note writer passed away from cancer in 2019. But interestingly, John,

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who found the bottle, and Laurie shared the same birthday.

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John mailed the note to the sister who plans to

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frame it in a shadow box and keep it in

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her home. He says Lori would have reacted to the

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news that her bottle had been found. She was really

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confident at the time that we wrote it was going

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to be found, so I think she would say, I

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told you so. Nice story there. And those are your

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five good news stories for today. If you enjoy my comedy,

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I host another podcast called Daily Comedy News. We talk

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about comedy and comedians and gossip and have a lot

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of fun. And that comes out seven days a week

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if you want to check that out. Have a great day.