$9,500, direct from the cashier at the Sands in Atlantic City to my hot little hands!
Not a personal story, but one related very humorously by Jey Leno in his autobiography…
While trying to break into the comedy business, Leno worked for a car dealership. He was constantly making the rounds of the verious comedy clubs, volunteering to take any mike time that might be available, especially if another performer was unexpectedly unavailable.
One evening he was assigned the job of delivering a custom ordered car to a somewhat eccentric buyer, who was known to pay a new car every year and pay cash. Sure enough, Leno delivered the car and was given a nondescript paper bag with about $25,000 in it.
Hurrying back to Boston, he made the club rounds and got a slot. He did his set and then headed home. Halfway there, it hit him: he no longer had the money! He hurried back to the club, shaking with fear, imagining some alcoholic or comic finding the bag and blowing it all on strippers in one night. He burst in and… saw the bag, undisturbed, sitting right where he had left it. He says, thinking back on it, how lucky he was that his stupidity didn’t have any consequences - that if that bag was gone, he might well be just getting out of jail instead of writing his autobiography; his whole career would never have happened.
I walked around the Diamond District in Midtown Manhattan for a little while with $5000 in cash to buy an engagement ring, which price I expected to (and was able to) haggle down by a couple hundred in so doing. Then I walked around for 24 hours with the $5000 ring in a box in my pocket. And plotting ways to spring the question. Hoo boy. Talk about tense.
I also received $5000 in cash when I sold a car a few years ago, but it didn’t bother me as I live very close to a bank branch and just popped in one day to give it to a teller.
About $8000.00 in cash. It was my parent’s money and they were making a payment on an apartment in Brazil and my dad asked me to take it for him. I was 21 and going to visit some family. I carried it with me through a connecting flight in the U.S., an interational flight to Rio, customs, and a connecting flight elsewhere in a money belt that was hidden under my T-shirt and regular shirt. My uncle picked me up at the airport and we met the builder at his office where I gave him the money, we all counted it out and I let my uncle take over the rest of the transaction. The whole thing was slightly surreal as I was dog tired from not sleeping on the flight, but still wired on caffeine as I wanted to stay awake until I took care of the situation.
“Maybe I misread the OP but I think it’s supposed to be your own money.”
OP here, just interested in the largest amount of cash you’ve carried, yours, your employer’s, the mob’s, your drug dealer partners-doesn’t matter. Also curious if it’s all yours or you were responsible for other peoples money. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.