(CNN) — A Florida sheriff’s office has turned a $500 mistake into a $9,650 windfall for charity.
The Pinellas County Sherriff’s office ordered a new rug which turned up last week with a typo. The large green rug with the black and yellow Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office logo included the phrase “In Dog We Trust” within one of its crests.
It was supposed to read “In God We Trust.”
The Sheriff’s Office said rug manufacturer, American Floor Mats, would replace it
That could have been the end of the story except Sheriff Bob Gualtieri had an idea.
He decided to auction off the unique item — the “doggone rug,” as he called it — and donate the proceeds to a local rescue.
“The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office will not sweep anything under the rug,” the department said when it put up the item.
Jane Sidwell is the founder of Canine Estates Inc. She figured her shelter would net a few hundred bucks from the sale.
“I knew that the sheriff’s office paid $500 for it,” she told CNN affiliate Bay News 9 . “So I thought well, that’s great. We’ll get $500. But we had no idea it would escalate into what it has.”
Eighty three bids later, the rug was sold — for a whopping $9,650!
The money will go mainly toward vet bills, Sidwell said. Last year, the shelter adopted out 186 dogs.
“A lot of these dogs just come in in absolute terrible shape,” she told the affiliate.
