What would you have done?

[Kenny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110520/ap_on_fe_st/us_found_money

Family finds $45,000 in new home — then returns it

SALT LAKE CITY – When Josh Ferrin closed on his family's first home, he never thought he'd make the discovery of a lifetime — then give it back.

Ferrin picked up the keys earlier this week and decided to check out the house in the Salt Lake City suburb of Bountiful. He was excited to finally have a place his family could call their own.

As he walked into the garage, a piece of cloth that clung to an attic door caught his eye. He opened the hatch and climbed up the ladder, then pulled out a metal box that looked like a World War II ammunition case.

"I freaked out, locked it my car, and called my wife to tell her she wouldn't believe what I had found," said Ferrin, who works as an artist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City.

Then he found seven more boxes, all stuffed full with tightly wound rolls of cash bundled together with twine — more than $40,000.

Ferrin quickly took the boxes to his parent's house to count. Along with his wife and children, they spread out thousands of bills on a table, separating the bundles one by one.

They stopped counting at $40,000, but estimated there was at least $5,000 more on the table.

Ferrin thought about how such a large sum of money could go a long way, pay bills, buy things he never thought he could afford.

"I'm not perfect, and I wish I could say there was never any doubt in my mind. We knew we had to give it back, but it doesn't mean I didn't think about our car in need of repairs, how we would love to adopt a child and aren't able to do that right now, or fix up our outdated house that we just bought," Ferrin said. "But the money wasn't ours to keep and I don't believe you get a chance very often to do something radically honest, to do something ridiculously awesome for someone else and that is a lesson I hope to teach to my children."

He thought about the home's previous owner, Arnold Bangerter, who died in November and left the house to his children.

"I could imagine him in his workshop. From time to time, he would carefully bundle up $100 with twine, climb up into his attic and put it into a box to save. And he didn't do that for me," Ferrin said of the man who had worked as a biologist for the Utah Department of Fish and Game.

Bangerter purchased the home in 1966 and lived there with his wife, who died in 2005.

After most of the money was counted, Ferrin called one of Bangerter's sons with the news.

Kay Bangerter said he knew his father hid away money because he once found a bundle of cash taped beneath a drawer in their home, but he never considered his dad had stuffed away so much over the years.

"He grew up in hard times and people that survived that era didn't have anything when they came out of it unless they saved it themselves," Kay Bangerter, the oldest of the six children, told the Deseret News. "He was a saver, not a spender."

Bangerter called the money's return "a story that will outlast our generation and probably yours as well."

"I'm a father, and I worry about the future for my kids," Ferrin said. "I can see him putting that money away for a rainy day and it would have been wrong of me to deny him that thing he worked on for years. I felt like I got to write a chapter in his life, a chapter he wasn't able to finish and see it through to its conclusion."

45 grand, untraceable, tax free money.

Peace,
Cy

 

[BeZazz]

I am honestly not sure.

I think I would have to be in that situation to know for sure what I would do.

 

[Blake]

Well I think I would have done the same...plus karma is always out there waiting for you. I really want to leave this world with a clean conscience and good vibes

Props to the guy!

 

[namenut]

If I were the person getting the money returned
to me I would have split it with the guy that
found it. Then everyone would win.


NN

 

[PSS_Lena]

If I were the person getting the money returned
to me I would have split it with the guy that
found it. Then everyone would win.


NN

My opinion too! if he never saw it, it'll be forever forgotten.

 

[gemstar]

There is an old story of a guy finding a huge sum of money
Then finding the owner to return it.
As the owner thanked the person for returning the money
The person asked, If he was going to get a reward.
The man with the money looks at him with a smile,
Of course! Here is $5 go buy yourself a rope and
hang yourself.

 

[SiberForum]

Once I watched the movie (can't recall the name) when couple have found a big sum of money in a car and didn't returned it. In some time after a criminal agent came for money or for the lives... I shall think many times as I have this situation.

 

[GreenGambler]

I've heard a similar story before. I'm not sure what I would do. I would like to say I would give it back, but honestly, greed might get the best of me. Or, I might say, invest it and hope to be able to return from the profits.. if it worked out, that is.

 

[.X.]

I would defiantly return the cash to the family, It is rightly theirs.

I learned a long time ago, Greed and Dishonesty lead to a person losing their blessings, Dirty money doesn't spend well

 

[WebIntellects - Rob]

Well, let me into such situation, and then I will tell you what would I do. However the forty five thousand make me hesitate, while the huge sum of millions would most likely drive me out of the country towards some tropic seashore.

 

[pit]

Maybe there was actually 100k there to start with. I guess we'll never know.

 

[Chris]

Hello Kenny! Hope all has been well for you! Been awhile since I've spoken with you as I haven't been as active here.

I would definitely give the money back to the family as it's the ethical thing to do and if it were me in the situation then I would hope that someone out there would do the right thing and return my money back to me if something happened. However, it would be a kind gesture of the family if they gave some of the money to the guy as he didn't have to turn it in.

Best regards,
Chris

 

[KasinoPortalen]

Honestly, I think I would have kept it.. Large amount of money, yes, and not mine to begin with, but they bought the house, and everything that comes with it, so it was technically theirs..

 

[dezinerite]

I would probably return the money also. But nevertheless, I would hate to find that much money in MY house, and not be able to use any of it.

 

[Kenny]

I would defiantly return the cash to the family, It is rightly theirs.

I learned a long time ago, Greed and Dishonesty lead to a person losing their blessings, Dirty money doesn't spend well

Bingo!!!!!

Hi Chris... long time for me too.
Hope all is well in your world

Peace,
Cy

 

[Kenny]

Another one, just like the other one.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110609/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_found_riches_returned

Chicago-area man returns bag with $17K in cash

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – Robert Adams craved an ice-cold drink after finishing his shift on a sweltering workday, but not having enough money to buy the burrito he also wanted left him with two obvious choices: Stop at the ATM, or find a bag containing more than $17,000 in cash.

"I wanted to get a large horchata, which is almost like a rice or coconut milk," Adams told the Daily Herald (Arlington Heights) for a story published Wednesday. "I would have grabbed a chorizo burrito, too, but I didn't have enough money."

That changed Monday when the Chicago-area man stood at a Chase ATM in Rolling Meadows, looked down and discovered on the sidewalk near a newspaper box a clear plastic bag containing receipts, checks and $17,021 in cash — mostly $20 and $100 bills bound by a rubber band.

"I see this plastic bag. It's clear plastic and it's half full of money," Adams said. "I figure this is a joke. Somebody took some napkins and made it look like money. This has to be a setup. People are going to look at me and start laughing."

Adams said he never had the urge to keep any of the money.

"It's not my money. I shouldn't take it. I don't care if you put another zero on there, I wasn't raised to take money that isn't mine," said Adams, a 54-year-old single man who lives in Arlington Heights and credits his deceased parents for teaching him right from wrong. "If I saw you drop it, I'd say, `Excuse me, sir. I think you dropped something.'"

The word "Chase" was printed on the bag, so Adams carried it inside the nearby branch.

"I walk up to the teller and say, `I think you might have left this outside,'" said Adams, figuring an employee left it behind after restocking the ATM. But employees told him the machine is filled from inside and the money didn't belong to the bank.

Adams then called police, who along with bank officials later determined the money was meant for an ATM in Midlothian and had been under the care of Loomis, an armored truck company. Rolling Meadows police took the money to the station, where it was picked up by a Loomis official.

Loomis officials said they were investigating, but have not said whether Adams will get a reward.

"I really don't know what happens with this situation," Adams said.

Onesimo Santillan, owner of the Senor Taco restaurant where Adams originally was headed to indulge his cravings, said the actions of his longtime customer don't surprise him.

"He has been coming in for years, always orders the same thing, very nice guy," Santillan said. "It's hard to find people like that, honest people."

Rolling Meadows Police Chief Dave Scanlan said Adams did good: "We all said right away that this guy deserves something — credit for being an Honest Abe."

 

[mwzd]

Most people would probably like to think they'd return the money, me included.

But what you actually do when confronted with the fact is what matters.

The rest is pure conjecture... of course I'd return the money. :p

 

[holyroller]

Most people would probably like to think they'd return the money, me included.

But what you actually do when confronted with the fact is what matters.

The rest is pure conjecture... of course I'd return the money. :p

Yeah it is difficult, I think in my mind would probably be the concern that something else was going on.

I found £100 once as a child and handed it into the police. No one claimed the money so I got it back. Someone accidentally (I assume) sent me $2,500 to my PayPal account, which I refunded as soon as I noticed (I guess part of me thought it was a scam), the person never responded or replied to the fact I gave his/her money back though.

$40,000+ I think I would return it, but as many have said, unless you are in that situation you don't know what you would do. I think the feeling of guilt would weigh on my mind too much and I am a fairly honest person.

 

[Meridith23]

I have done it myself..though the amount was very less. so, I would have definitely returned it to the righteous heir..

 

[Dirky47]

Ofcourse I will think first but for sure I will return it to the owner. Good deeds are priceless.

 

[jaydub]

As I say in my sig...Real character is doing the right thing when nobody is watching.

These are people of character...imho

 

[gemstar]