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October 28, 2007
Woman Finds $65,000 in Bag
AP- A county garbage operations employee found a plastic bag on the road stuffed with $65,000 Thursday — and immediately turned it in to authorities.
It turned out the money had fallen off a Loomis armored car a half hour before Debbie Cole found it near the Pinellas County solid waste operations facility where she works. First she thought it was a turtle in the road.
The 53-year-old Largo woman found the bag just before 7 a.m., full of enough $50 and $100 bills to pay her salary for two years. She immediately contacted a supervisor, who called deputies.
It's not clear how the bag fell from the truck, said Mark Clark, spokesman for Loomis, a Houston-based cash-handling company.
Cole's boss, Bob Hauser, said he can't give her a raise or a bonus for her good deed because she's a government employee. But maybe, he said, he can arrange some extra time off.
Cole, who grew up in Long Island, said she was raised to be honest. She said she raised her four daughters the same way.
Did she think for just a minute about keeping the money?
''Everyone keeps asking me that,'' Cole said. ''To be honest, no. It didn't even cross my mind.''
PS You would have done that same thing, right?
Posted by Post Scripts at October 28, 2007 10:15 PM
Comments
$65 grand just fell off an Armored Car?
Posted by: Jim at October 29, 2007 08:40 AM
And then it would have just fallen into my trunk.
Posted by: Toby Stahler at October 29, 2007 10:24 AM
My hearty approval goes out to this honest woman for doing the right thing.
Posted by: Tina at October 29, 2007 12:00 PM
This isn't the first time a large amount of money has "fallen Off or Out" of an armored car. I remember a similar story several years ago, and that money was turned in as well.
Posted by: John Freitas at October 29, 2007 12:48 PM
More proof that you just can't help some people! Why exactly is turning in a bag of money that you found in the road doing the right thing? If a package you didn't order comes to your house you can keep it. If you find a $100 bill at the carnival you don't go around asking whose it is do you?
If you want to be a real "honest Christian" stickler or whatever, claim it on your taxes for pity's sake but why spit in the face of good fortune? Finding is not stealing...
Posted by: Nukeweldor at October 29, 2007 04:37 PM
Actually finding and keeping something where the rightful owner could be easily determined is considered a crime under the penal code. An easy example is finding a lost wallet...keeping it is the same as theft. A bank bag, still qualifies. If they found out you grabbed it from the street you could be liable for any money you spent and face a theft charge too.
See, you learn something new here every visit! lol
Posted by: Jack Lee at October 29, 2007 05:27 PM
Usually when these bags of money "fall" out of armored trucks, its because a guard dumps it with the expectation of coming back and getting it later. Loomis and the other companies aren't really all that vocal about this practice because, understandably, it's bad for their business if it seems like they have employees that would steal.
Posted by: Jordan Frazer at October 29, 2007 09:02 PM
"More proof that you just can't help some people! Why exactly is turning in a bag of money that you found in the road doing the right thing? If a package you didn't order comes to your house you can keep it. If you find a $100 bill at the carnival you don't go around asking whose it is do you?"
I guess it has to do with it isn't mine. And yes if I found a 100 dollar bill at the carnival, I would turn it in. I guess, to you, I'm a sap.
Several years ago my children attended a school that sold scrip for different stores in the area, you got dollar to dollar value for your money and the vendor passed a stipend back to the school.
My wife and I had put our entire food budget into the scrip. While she was shopping, she unknowingly dropped the scrip out of her purse, onto the floor of the store!
This is the same as cash to anyone who finds it and we could not afford to replace it.
My wife did not notice the loss until she was in line to pay for the groceries. After describing the loss, the cashier informed her that another customer had found them and turned them into the store and returned them to us.
It is the right thing to do, Regardless of how bad you need the money, or how nice it is to have extra; you don't know the circumstances of the person who lost it.
Posted by: John Freitas at October 30, 2007 09:35 AM