Originally posted on www.oddastic.com
If you found huge money or valuables, would you keep the money for yourself? Afterall, Finders keepers, losers weepers right? or could you fight off the temptation to keep it and return the money?
1. The Honest Taxi Driver
In 2012, Mr Umeh Usuah, a taxi driver found a bag containing N18 million in his car after the close of work. Left behind by one of his passengers, a foreigner who visited the country for business, Mr Usuah could not bring himself to keep the money. He decided to do the right thing by returning it to the owner.
For this exemplary display of honesty, the Abuja taxi cab driver who plies the Abuja Airport road route was recognized by the NOA and handed a reward of N30,000.
2. CA Struggling Man
In 2014, a Salvation Army worker from California, Joe Cornell found a bag containing $125,000 in cash after a Brinks security truck pulled away from a red light in Fresno, California and left the sack behind. “I started crying and shaking. Everything was going through my mind – the good/bad devil thing. What to do?” Cornell said
He explained that the impending birth of his fourth grandchild soon helped him make up his mind. I thought, ‘What would I want her to think of me?’ That made up my mind right there,” he said.
He called his boss and told him about the money, though he admitted it was not only the desire to do the right thing that motivated him; he wouldn’t want to be caught as they were cameras everywhere.
3. The Airport Cleaner
In 2015, Miss Josephine Agwu, an Airport cleaner with one of the cleaning concessionaires at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, Nigeria found forgotten $28,000 and other foreign currencies totaling N12m and returned it to the owner.
She became a subject of mockery, both for people present at the airport who heard of it, and notably on some social media platforms. Many labelled her dumb – others tagged her with unprintable names. But despite the mockery, Miss Agwu maintained satisfaction that she did the right thing.
Her gesture was finally rewarded with her increase of her salary from a paltry N7,800 to N15,000. The Lagos State House of Assembly have also made a decision to invite her over to be rewarded.
“If I had taken what doesn’t belong to me, God will punish me. I am contented with my N7, 800 monthly salary. It was not my money. I believe when it pleases God, He will bless the work of my hand and will make me rich.” she said
4. The Rabbi
A Connecticut rabbi returned $98,000 in cash he found in a plastic bag hidden behind drawers of an ordinary office desk he bought on Craigslist in September in 2013.
Rabbi Noah Muroff, a high school teacher at a private Jewish school in New Haven, discovered the money while dismantling the $150 desk to move it through a narrow doorway. Within 20 minutes of finding the money, around 11:30 p.m. that same evening, Muroff called Patty, the former owner of the desk.
“She was speechless, without words,” he said. She had put her inheritance in the desk and after a while and forgot it was there.
5. The Little Girl
In August 2012, 8-year-old Abbie Jacobson, a third-grader from Scarborough, Maine became the centre of attention when The Portland Press Herald ran a news story detailing how she discovered a purse in the parking lot of a Sam’s Club, and turned it to her parents. The purse contained approximately $4,200 in rolled-up dollar bills, some Cambodian money, heirloom gold jewelry and — thankfully for the owner — a bank debit card. Jacobson was determined to track down the person who’d lost the purse, and her parents were able to return the missing items by reaching out to the local police department and bank.
Fortunately for young Abbie, after reading her story in the paper, one man was so taken aback he decided to reward her with tickets to see her favourite singer-Justin Bieber. Shortly after, Abbie was hooked up with five tickets to see her favourite pop star in Boston.
6. A New Homeowner
After buying his family’s first home, Josh Ferrin of Utah stopped by the property one day prior to moving in. Inside the garage, he noticed a piece of cloth hanging from an attic door, which he used to open the hatch. In the attic he found eight metal boxes, resembling World War II ammunition cases, all of which were stuffed with rolls of cash wound in twine. Ferrin immediately freaked out, called his wife, and began counting the money, stopping at $40,000, and leaving an estimated $5,000 more uncounted. Ferrin remembered that the home’s previous owner, Arnold Bangerter, had died not long ago and left the house to his children. So he decided to call and inform them of what he had found.
Arnold’s son confirmed his father had a tendency to hide money away, having once found a small bundle under a dresser drawer. Ferrin returned the money, saying, “I’m a father, and I worry about the future for my kids. 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.”
7. The Roommates
In May 2014, a couple of room-mates living in an up-state college town found more than $40,000 in a second-hand couch they bought from a thrift store, they decided to track down the money’s rightful owner instead of keeping it for themselves. The New Paltz roommates, Reese Werkhoven, Cally Guasti and Lara Russo, picked up the couch at a Salvation Army for $20. They didn’t have it for long before Werkhoven found an envelope stuffed with $20 bills under a dingy arm rest.
The money added up to $700, and the roommates started looking for more, tearing through the fold-out and sticking their hands in every crevice. They pulled out envelope after envelope filled with money, the total eventually adding up to more than $40,000.
They began to talk about what they’d do with the money. They planned to pay off student loans and take a trip. Werkhoven said he wanted to buy his mom a new car.
But when Russo found a woman’s name on one of the envelopes, they stopped making plans and agreed to return the money to the owner.
8. The Burger King Cleaner
In 2014, a cleaner at Burger King found a whopping $100,000 stuffed into a bag left behind by a customer at Burger King. Sahista Bakawla, from San Jose, United States, was cleaning the fast food restaurant when she stumbled across a blue backpack, abandoned in a booth. She took the bag into the back of the restaurant and called the owner, who opened it hoping to find some ID or a phone number. But the pair called the police when they discovered the bag was full of $100 bills.
9. The Unemployed Man
A 49-year old man, Wayne Sabaj, stumbled upon $150,000 as he was looking for broccoli in the back garden of his home. As he searched among the plants he came across a duffel bag containing bundles of $20 bills. After Sabaj went inside and showed the bag to his father, they decided to alert police. When the McHenry Sheriff’s Department arrived, they discovered a second bag. The bags contained a total of $150,000. Sabaj said he was briefly tempted to keep the cash, but thought better of it.
10. The Homeless Man
In 2013, a homeless Boston man found $40,000 in a backpack. He was hailed a hero after he turned it all over to police. Glen James said he never considered keeping the haul for even a second after unearthing it at South Bay Mall.
Proving that honesty is often the best policy, James was given a nice plaque and lots of applause. More than $100,000 was donated for him in a fundraising campaign.
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