WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., May 28 (UPI) -- An Indiana couple said they found a receipt that may have blown 525 miles from Joplin, Mo., to their porch, but it was determined the receipt arrived by car.

Tia Fritz and her husband discovered a receipt dated May 13 from Joplin Tire on the porch of their Royal Center, Ind., home Wednesday.


Fritz contacted Ernest Agee, a Purdue University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and tornado expert.

Initially, Agee said the receipt had traveled more than twice as far as the longest distance recorded for debris from a storm. The previous record was a canceled check that traveled 210 miles after the 1915 tornado in Great Bend, Kan., he said.

Using wind speeds and the distance traveled, Agee estimated the receipt, which was folded into one-quarter of its original size, would have to have been sucked into the tornado and then carried by the jet stream for 12.5 hours, a Purdue release said Friday.

However, Saturday Purdue issued the following correction:

"The receipt from a Joplin, Mo., tire store that made its way to Indiana was not deposited by the May 22 tornado. Upon further investigation another explanation was discovered. The receipt was left by a visiting relative who later recalled the Joplin purchase."

The devastating May 22 tornado, considered the deadliest to hit the United States in 65 years, destroyed almost one-third of Joplin and killed at least 132 people in the city of more than 50,000.