Boy Finds 24-Year-Old Message in a Bottle

There's no romance and no Kevin Costner, but nearly a quarter-century after a German boy tossed a message in a bottle off a ship in the Baltic Sea, he's received an answer. A 13-year-old Russian, Daniil Korotkikh, was walking with his parents on a beach when he saw something glittering in the sand. "It looked interesting," Korotkikh said. "It looked like a German beer bottle with a ceramic plug, and there was a message inside." His father translated the German, which read: "My name is Frank, and I'm five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you."

The letter, dated 1987, included an address in the town of Coesfeld. The boy in the letter, Frank Uesbeck, is now 29. His parents still live at the letter's address. "At first I didn't believe it," Uesbeck said. In fact, he barely remembered the trip at all; his father actually wrote the letter. But Daniil will "definitely get another letter from me," the 29-year-old said. "It's really a wonderful story." (More bottles stories.)