Man helps save kidnapped girl, then gives her the reward money

Earl Melchert, left, and Alexandria, MN police chief, Richard Wyffels, right.

(Image credit: Facebook.com/Alexandria Police Department, Alexandria, MN)

published 12 October 2017

A Minnesota man not only rescued a kidnapped teenager, he then gave her his $7,000 reward. Earl Melchert, 65, was driving by his lakeside property when he saw a female figure in the distance. He immediately recognized her as Jasmine Block, 15, whose face had been all over the news since she'd been abducted from her home 29 days before.

Block had escaped her three kidnappers, and swam across the lake to reach Melchert's house. He took her in until the police arrived. When they presented him with a check as his reward, he decided dinner with Block's family would suffice, and gave them the money instead. "It's the best thing I've ever done," he told The New York Times. "The family needs the money. To me, yeah, that's a lot of money, but they need it way worse than I do."