In 1949 Jack Wurm, broke and out of a job, had nothing to do so he walked along the shore of San Francisco Bay picking up flotsam and jetsam. He came across a bottle with a piece of paper in it. The paper said this was the last will and testament of Daisy Singer Alexander, heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Twelve years earlier the heiress had thrown the bottle into the Thames River in London. From there it drifted across the oceans to the feet of penniless Jack Wurm. His discovery netted six million dollars in cash and some Singer stock. He had been looking for one thing and had found another. Serendipity!