80 miles from impact, a haunting paper trail

The records and trappings of everyday life were borne toward the east at heights that could have approached 50,000 feet, said WBZ-TV meteorologist Todd Gutner. “When the funnel hits the ground, it starts to churn up all kinds of debris,’’ he said. “It goes very, very high into the thunderhead, essentially where the jet stream is … and can land as much as 100 miles away.’’

Much of the paper trail left by the tornado at first was regarded as locally generated litter. But names, dates, and businesses from another place and time helped underscore the terrifying power of the three twisters that raked Central and Western Massachusetts on Wednesday, killing at least three people and damaging hundreds of buildings.

One car-repair business, in particular, seemed to have its records strewn across Boston’s southern suburbs.

Invoices and receipts from that Brimfield business, alternately called #1 Stop Towing and Classic Heaven, reached Braintree, Weymouth, and Medway. One dated to 2000, when the company opened a locked car at Ware High School for a Springfield woman. Another was a $900 bank deposit from the company to Country Bank in Ware on Oct. 7, 2008.

The business today is a chaotic, flattened pile of splintered wood, jagged metal, and damaged cars. The owners could not be reached.

Julianne Weisse, 16, of Weymouth, spotted the deposit slip, attached to a piece of tarpaper shingle, in the family’s backyard on Wednesday afternoon.

“We immediately knew what it was and where it came from. We camp in Brimfield all the time and go to the Brimfield Fair,’’ said Cheryl Weisse, Julianne’s mother. “It must have been in his attic. All of his banking is blowing all over the place.’’

Now, windblown across much the state, this mundane piece of banking minutiae will receive an unlikely and newfound respect. “I’m going to keep it and frame it,’’ Weisse said.