Ocean City out to find 1985 bottle's sender At sea till reaching N.C. Heidi, ho!

November 26, 2009|By Peter Mucha INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A weekend stay in Ocean City, N.J., awaits the woman - if she can be found - who put a message in a two-liter soda bottle tossed off a pier there in 1985.

The green bottle, launched as part of a contest, was found at a North Carolina resort that was cleaning up after last week's nor'easter.

The note inside, illustrated with a sketch of a fish-shaped bottle, bears the name Heidi Kay Werstler, whose address was "Trembler's Trailer Park, Pa."

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The contest promised a prize to the person whose note went the farthest.

As of early yesterday afternoon, no word from Heidi Kay.

"We don't know anything about the person whose name is on there," Ocean City spokesman Mark Soifer said.

He said she would receive a three-day vacation at "one of the motels" if she is found.

Messages left for several Heidi Werstlers - found through a database and Facebook - had not been returned.

People provided their own bottles or jars for the contest, filled out the entry forms, and put them inside.

The containers went into the Atlantic from the Music Pier at Moorlyn Terrace and the boardwalk, Soifer said.

The note asked the finder to call the Ocean City public-relations department.

Only one other bottle showed up - in Virginia or Maryland, probably in the early 1990s, Soifer said. That person never came forward.

The newly found bottle turned up at the Sanderling Resort & Spa in Duck on the Outer Banks.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com.

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