The Associated Press

CLEVELAND - The battle over a large stash of cash hidden for more than 45 years in an old house has ended.

Olga Kosec of Kirtland, whose aunt tucked away more than $120,000 in the ceiling of the Cleveland house, and Brian Williams, the current owner, will share the money.

The money was discovered last fall when remodeler Jeffrey Picklo of Wickliffe punched through the ceiling.

Representatives gathered for three hours at the Wickliffe police station Tuesday to have the bills, including Depression-era silver certificates and denominations no longer in circulation, counted and appraised. Police then escorted the money to a bank.

The settlement is confidential, though Eric Jochum, Kosec's lawyer, said the split was not even.

"Everybody seemed happy with the way it came out," Jochum said Wednesday. "There was no animosity."

Wickliffe police collected the money from Picklo's home after he spent some at a Cleveland supermarket. Employees who thought the bills were fake turned him in.

City Prosecutor William Gargiulo decided Picklo had not committed a crime, but the prosecutor asked Lake County Common Pleas Court to determine who should get the money. Judge Paul Mitrovich rejected claims by Picklo and Timothy McGuinness, who owned the house briefly before Williams.

Louise Stamberg, who died 45 years ago, is believed to have hidden the money, which was bundled with string and stored in cans. Stamberg emigrated from Yugoslavia and bought the house in the early 1900s. Kosec later lived in the house but moved two years ago.