Two days before Thanksgiving, the Cherokee County (Georgia) Sheriff's Department recovered the body of Roberto Alvarez from the bottom of a four-acre pond at Towne Lake Hills Golf Club outside Atlanta. He had drowned while attempting to collect errant golf balls that had splashed down between Holes No. 4 and No. 8 at the public course.

Alvarez was an illegal immigrant, according to investigators. But that's not what got him in trouble. It was his job. He worked for a contractor hired by the golf course to retrieve balls that would be resold at a discounted price.

Had Alvarez survived, he likely would have emerged with dozens if not hundreds of the most coveted, high-end golf balls in the world: the Titleist V1 ball. For his efforts he would have received between 8 cents and 15 cents for each ball from either the golf course or another retailer, his infinitesimal slice of the estimated $1 billion golfers spend each year for new and used golf balls.

To breathe during his underwater scavenger hunt, Alvarez apparently drew air through a garden hose connected to a compressor. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still investigating.