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Newser Staff

(NEWSER) – Stories about strangers helping out a scammed vet and a custodian who turned things around in a big way were among the favorites of the week:

Strangers Help Pearl Harbor Vet After Scam: Publishers Clearing House couldn't help Jack Holder. Bank of America, neither. But nearly 1,000 regular people could, and did, donating more than $65,000 to a GoFundMe account after the 94-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor was scammed out of nearly all of his life savings earlier this year. Holder has a thank-you in mind.

Custodian Lands Dream Job After Earning Degree at 54: Michael Vaudreuil first made headlines in May when the custodian received a degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the very school the 54-year-old had spent the past decade cleaning. Now he's got another big announcement: a dream job as an engineer with aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. His roller-coaster tale is incredible.

Navy Vet Gets Apology for Misogynistic Note: A woman shamed with an anonymous note for parking in a veterans-only space — despite herself being a veteran — has received an apology from the unnamed note-leaver. He sounds genuinely contrite.

Young Girl Finds Stolen Gold Medal: Six-year-old Chloe Smith was out for a walk with her dad in Atlanta on Saturday when she picked up a shiny disc from the ground and threw it like a Frisbee. Had she known it was an Olympic gold medal, she might have thought twice. The medal was won by Joe Jacobi in the two-man canoe/slalom whitewater event at the 1992 Summer Olympics, and there's a logical explanation for how it ended up where it did.

Zoo Closes to Give Animals a Better Life: The Buenos Aires zoo, one of the city's major tourist attractions, will be shutting down after 140 years to give its animal residents a shot at a better life. The zoo had come under fire in recent years over the condition of its animals and infrastructure, but nearly all the animals are going to greener pastures, literally.

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