HOLLADAY, UT (KSL/CNN) - They call it the terrible twos for a reason.
It’s the age when kids are into everything, pushing your buttons at every turn.
Problem is, one little boy in Utah pushed an actual button that sent his parents into a panic – and cost them a lot of money.
Two-year-old Leo Belnap’s dad, Ben, is a lifelong fan of the University of Utah football team.
"I love the atmosphere! You hear the band from a distance and you're like, 'it's football season!'" he said.
Ben Belnap and his wife Jackee saved up for season tickets, and had the cash all ready at home to pay his parents back for them.
"I am putting this in an envelope. I am labeling it Utah Utes, $1,060, and I'm going to put it right here so we don't forget to take it up,” Jackee Benlap said.
But this past weekend, that envelope vanished.
It turns out little Leo got his hands onto it.
"I'm out digging through the trash and she hollers and says, 'I found it,’” Ben Belnap said. "She's holding the shredder and she says, 'I think the money is in here.’ We started laughing. We were just baffled that this could happen."
Jackee Belnap admitted there were some other emotions.
"I cried for a minute,” she said. “You can't say we just laughed."
"A few tears and then a bunch of laughs,” Ben Belnap acknowledged.
The evidence is still sitting on their table.
"I know there's seven hundred-dollar bills, so I guess that kind of helps,” Ben Belnap said. “If this was all tens, it'd be a pile this big."
And they might get it all back. It turns out, there's a government department dedicated to mutilated cash.
Ben Belnap said he was told to “bag it up in little Ziploc bags, mail it to D.C., and between one to two years, you'll get your money back."
There will be a lot of football games over the next couple of years. When that $1,060 comes back, Leo figures to be a much bigger Utah fan.
Jackee Belnap said Leo has always helped her shred things. Ben Belnap joked that he’s grounded from it now.
Copyright 2018 KSL via CNN. All rights reserved.
