GRAND FORKS (AP) - Nearly $7,000 found in a coat pocket and money belt donated to a thrift shop here has been turned over to the state.

Shirley Meagher, who found the money while working at the Home Place Thrift Store last year, says she could put the money to better use.

"I don't think it's fair to me - to be as true as I was in turning that money in," Meagher said. "I could have used that, especially this time of year.

"My family is in a traumatic crisis right now. My daughter is in the hospital," she said. "What kind of Christmas is that going to be for them?"

The money was found by Meagher in December 2006, after the man died and his belt and jacket were donated to the store.

Police said the belt and jacket belonged to Gary Beaton, who was 59 when he died of cancer in Altru Hospital, after living in low-income housing and a Grand Forks shelter.

Investigations by the Grand Forks police and city attorney Howard Swanson turned up no relatives.

Based on his collection of identification cards, Beaton had traveled throughout the West, using social service agencies in several states, Swanson said.

He also had used the name Charles Nixon at one point, Swanson said. It's not clear which name was his real or legal one. No criminal record was found, nor any military record, he said.

But after a long search turned up no heirs, it was determined the money belongs to the state Department of Health and Human Services, because of the Medicaid that Beaton received, Swanson said.

Meagher, a funeral home and the thrift store also put in claims for the money.

Meagher, 60, was featured in the National Enquirer and said she got $500 from the Enquirer for being honest and turning the money she found over to her supervisor. She was stung by criticism she got from co-workers for taking the money from the Enquirer.

She has since quit working at the thrift shop and says she can no longer work because she has vision problems and chronic arthritis.

Meagher was notified that she wouldn't be getting the money on Thursday.

"It hurts my heart bad," she said. "I could have just stuffed that money in my purse, but in my heart I'm not that kind of person."