Message in a bottle returns to New Hampshire family 50 years later

A Utah man has returned a message in a bottle from 50 years ago that he found while on holiday.

The old glass Coke bottle, originally sent from New Hampshire, was discovered more than 1,000 miles away in Turks and Caicos in 2011 by Clint Buffington.

The message read: "Return to 419 Ocean Boulevard and receive a reward of $150 from Tina, the owner of Beachcomber."

Mr Buffington returned the message on Monday to the daughter of the man who sent it.

The Beachcomber hotel

"I've never given one back to someone," Mr Buffington, who has collected bottles with messages since 2007, told ABC News.

"But in this case I knew it was the right thing to do. Just imagine it was a letter from your parents."

He first wrote about the discovery on his blog in the hope of crowd-sourcing help in locating the sender.

After speaking to a county clerk and tax assessor, Mr Buffington found the property to be the Beachcomber Motel in Hampton, New Hampshire.

Paula Pierce insisted on fulfilling her father's promise

The accommodation was owned by Paul and Tina Tsiatsios, but the couple had since passed away.

Mr Buffington was able to locate their daughter, Paula Pierce, to whom he returned the letter.

Ms Pierce said she never knew about the letter, but her husband did.

"My father secretly told my husband, who I have known since 1969. He told my husband that he did this soon after he bought the motel, which they did in 1960," Ms Pierce told ABC News.

"It was a very sweet gesture, he was trying to tease her (his wife)."

Ms Pierce said the joke was that room rates ran at about $15 (£12) or $20, so $150 would have been a lot of money at the time.

But she insisted on fulfilling her father's wishes and gave Mr Buffington his rightful reward of $150.

"It is like completing the circle," she said.