Winning Bidder

Here's an interesting story from SFGate...

You know that one of the biggest reasons for people to fall behind in their bills in this tough economy is huge medical bills and no insurance...

The Peters' lives and finances changed dramatically last April, when their 2-year-old son Noah was diagnosed with autism and with sensory and gastrointestinal disorders. Then in the summer, doctors diagnosed their 7-year-old daughter Ayla with juvenile arthritis. They also have a 1-year-old son, Eli.

Special treatment for the two older children costs about $2,000 a month and the Peters are carrying a $1,400 mortgage on their house in a suburban area about an hour north of Atlanta, said Brittiny Peters, a stay-at-home mom whose husband runs a tennis academy for middle and high school students.

As they struggled to hang on, they Peters family sought a novel way to get some cash...

Gregg and Brittiny Peters quipped they might need to sell everything they owned to stay solvent. As the bills tipped $10,000, however, the idea was no longer funny.

So on Thursday, the Gainesville, Ga., couple accepted a winning $20,000 eBay bid for all their belongings minus their house.

But there's always someone out there willing to screw up a good plan...

It came with one catch. The winning bidders, Donnia and Keith Blair of Texas, want the family to have the money, but keep their stuff.

Seems like the perfect happy ending, but the Peters say the whole idea was to start over, not take a handout.

The decision is out of their hands, the Blairs say.

"They've worked really hard to get those things and we're in a position to help them," Donnia Blair told The Associated Press Friday. "She can just act like they're my storage facility."

It sure seemed like an awfully nice thing for the Blairs to do, but the Peters family seemed disappointed. I wonder what that's all about. Click the link to read more about the story and keep you wondering what was actually going through the minds of the Peters. Strange folks indeed.