Woman finds bag filled with $65,000!

[Tink]

Debbie Cole of Largo found a plastic bag on the road stuffed with $65,000! What would you do if you found a bag filled with enough money to make your life easier?

http://asp.usatoday.com/community/othervoices/default.aspx?bbPostId=CzArNVG1W1X35CzEglkQCpcSeeCz Dh6mMWpw7dDBADjWx4ALSKI&bbParentWidgetId=B8rfF3qSlepWz4riibGq6vE7&req=blogburst&tag=offbeat^news

[AngieDoogles]

Wow, that's incredible! I couldn't get your link to work though. Is there a different link you could post?

[rivermom]

Id want to buy land, build a barn, a junker truck for work stuff.....and the list goes on and on and on and on. :D

[Janet]

I would like to think I would turn it in, but in all honesty I wouldn't want to. Things are a little tough right now with the hubby being off since Aug. 9. I really could use the money, but I sure wouldn't tell hubby at all.

[Mandy]

I can think of a lot of things i would do, my list is long, but right not i would want to go on a long vacation!!

[DianaB]

Well, first I would turn it in because it might have been a little old woman's life savings or something. But if it wasn't claimed and I received it back I would probably give it to my husband to help make farm payments. The flood hurt us this year and our crops haven't produced as much as they should have and my husband's combine went under so now he needs another one. He's not saying too much about finances to me because he knows that I get really stressed. I think that this time I wouldn't think about myself.

[katepoet]

The law is also that you must turn it in - there is no finders keepers, losers weepers legislation!

Temptation can really test your ethics. We are so tight that turning it in would be hard but I expect that I would do it. How could I hold my head up in front of my husband and son if I lied and kept it?

[judy]

How do you know who to turn it in to? In NYC, that's like looking for a needle in a haystack. You can't put up posters "Did anyone lose $65,000? If so, call me."

I wouldn't just hand it over to the police so it can lay in a a basement somewhere.

[Tink]

Here's a link that should work.
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/05/Southpinellas/Hey__65_000_in_cash__.shtml

The bag sounds like the ones we used at the bank which means it would have had Loomis armored and the name of the place it had been picked up at right on the package. So we couldn't use that excuse... lol

I would be sorely tempted but believe I'd turn it in. There are so many safeguards in place to prevent people spending large amounts of money that they shouldn't have that I'd be afraid of getting caught with it and wouldn't enjoy it anyway.

If you deposit more than normal your bank is supposed to try to know why... if you suddenly have a lot more cash than usual that you're paying things off with or purchasing things with, it will often be reported...

As an example, we had someone think he was hot stuff and come into the closing on a property with a duffle bag full of cash and dramatically dump it on the table. BY LAW we had to notify the FBI so that they could investigate where the guy might have come up with it. He might have felt important for the day, but it did come back to bite him. (he'd been stealing and selling things and was growing pot on the property he'd bought that day) when the FBI finally finished their investigation of him and went to his new place to arrest him. He had a shed filled with stolen property and had he not acted so blatant and foolish he might have gotten by with it.

[AngieDoogles]

It's sad that she didn't get any kind of reward for that! Poor woman...at least she knows she did the right thing...

[katepoet]

I love that her manager is trying to find a way to reward her. I bet her town will step up too, with a plaque or a day in her honor. They often do.

[Gina]

This reminds me of an article I read in newspaper last week about a woman who found a painting in a trash in NYC a few years ago , and found out that it was stolen and was an expensive painting from a Mexican artist. A man brought it for his wife as a present many years ago and it was stolen. She returned the painting and is being auction off in at Sotheby's auction house for one million dollars.. She will be getting a finders fee of 15,000 and I believe they say Sothebys is giving her a reward also..


http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2007/10/24/tomayo-painting.html

[katepoet]

Very cool, Gina! People can really be quite nice!

[AngieDoogles]

This reminds me of an article I read in newspaper last week about a woman who found a painting in a trash in NYC a few years ago , and found out that it was stolen and was an expensive painting from a Mexican artist. A man brought it for his wife as a present many years ago and it was stolen. She returned the painting and is being auction off in at Sotheby's auction house for one million dollars.. She will be getting a finders fee of 15,000 and I believe they say Sothebys is giving her a reward also..


http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2007/10/24/tomayo-painting.html

Wow Gina, that was a great article! It would be really exciting to find out that a piece of "trash" was actually a long lost $1 million treasure!

[rivermom]

LOL - I posted to this thread not being able to read the article so not fully understanding the story behind the money or the question as to what to do with it. So NOW that I know, it changes a lot....


Yes, first id try to find the owner of the money. Of course I would...And if nobody claimed it Id go back to my first answer/post of buying land, building a barn, a junker truckfor work stuff, and the list goes on and on. :D

[judy]

It fell off the truck? That sounds pretty fishy to me. It might have been meant for someone else to pick up and split with the driver. I think the bank should give her a nice reward.

I'm assuming this is a small town. I don't know if that would happen in NYC. My bank charges $30 for a bounced check! I wouldn't run to give them money back.

I certainly do admire her values and I have returned a pocketbook I found and some money I found in a bank once ($6). The bank officer looked at me like I was nuts, because I found it on the floor. I was a young woman and was raised with those values.

Things have changed now - like I said, this is NYC, banks charge you when you use an ATM, on top of the fee you pay the ATM, enormous fees for cancelled checks, bounced checks, oxygen use when standing on line, etc.

In a small town, yes - I would return it. There's a different economy in a small town.
In NYC, I'm not so sure.

[rivermom]

It fell off the truck? That sounds pretty fishy to me. It might have been meant for someone else to pick up and split with the driver. I think the bank should give her a nice reward.

I'm assuming this is a small town. I don't know if that would happen in NYC. My bank charges $30 for a bounced check! I wouldn't run to give them money back.

I certainly do admire her values and I have returned a pocketbook I found and some money I found in a bank once ($6). The bank officer looked at me like I was nuts, because I found it on the floor. I was a young woman and was raised with those values.

Things have changed now - like I said, this is NYC, banks charge you when you use an ATM, on top of the fee you pay the ATM, enormous fees for cancelled checks, bounced checks, oxygen use when standing on line, etc.

In a small town, yes - I would return it. There's a different economy in a small town.
In NYC, I'm not so sure.

I totally get what you are saying about this. There's a lot of factors that take play in the decision as to how to handle a money situation like this.

Let's say I was riding my 4-wheeler out in the country here. I then came across some unmarked bag filled with cash. Honestly, yes Id probably keep it. Most likely that cash out here would have been in the hands of some meth drug operation dealer and they should not have had that cash to begin with OR doing drugs. So right or wrong Id be keeping me some cash. :D Again, it just all boils down to the situation.

[vainchick5]

Seriously, I wasn't born yesterday nor do I think if I actually turn it in, that it will make it to it's rightful owner. I would ONLY give it back if I found the rightful owner myself. I would NEVER go to the police or anyone else because people are very dishonest and you never know who's good and who's not. So I would make an effort to find the owner myself and if I couldn't I would keep it. I would never turn it in because it would end up in some officers pocket the minute I walked out.

[katepoet]

I haven't had the experience of the police being dishonest. I think if you turn it in and it isn't claimed within a certain time you may have dibs on it. Not sure if those laws are still around. But I know when we were really broke at one point, I lost $40 at the supermarket. I called them but it was never turned in. The following week a friend found $40 at the same market and didn't turn it in - it wasn't my money but I thought she was quite mean to whomever had lost it. That $40 bucks I lost was so critical to us.

[judy]

In a large city, I don't think anyone would ever think to go to the police if they lost $40. Like Sheryl said, it all depends on the situation.

[katepoet]

No - I mean I called the supermarket. The town I lived in had a population of about 20,000 with another 50,000 -100,000 in the two surrounding counties which were growing very fast. I was shopping in one of the busier markets but it still was nothing like living in a big city. Even here, on the outskirts of Richmond, our local market is quiet enough that I would call if I lost something there and expect it had a good chance of being turned in. But down at the other end of our neighborhood, the markets are a lot larger and busier - probably not worth the phone call.

[judy]

Even in NY, people would call the store. You never know!