I have some doubts and some points to discuss that don’t seem right (about the guys story), but I will wait till a few of you guys weigh in before I lay out my case.
Read the link, and what say yee.
I’m not sure if you need to register to read the link but if you do it’s real quick and painless.
I once found an envelope with $3400 in it. I gave it back. It also had a deposit slip so finding the owner was no problem. It didn’t get any press, it was just the right thing to do. Why does the news media think something like this is newsworthy? Do they think there is no such thing as honest folks anymore?
Here is a similar story about a man who found $10,000 hidden inside an air vent in his home and returned it to the rightful owner.
Not all the honest people have disappeared.
Let’s just assume the whole thing is true. I find it bizarre beyond belief that he didn’t mention it to his wife. He doesn’t even say, “Funny thing happened today…” That just doesn’t come up? Too mundane? :dubious:
I’m wondering what kind of shirt could conceal $2000 in cash. Unless it’s all hundreds, that’s a bulky wad of change. It sounds a little fishy, but I’m willing to suspend my skepticism.
And if we’re sharing found money stories, a construction crew in Kawasaki found a buried treasure as they were digging the foundation for a new home this week.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200504/14/20050414p2a00m0dm005000c.html
You guys have brought up some of the points already.
What do you suppose the motives could be?
Maybe his wife is so tight with money that the only way he could spend his little nest egg is to claim that the money was ‘found’, therefore, as far as the wife is concerned, easy come easy go. Now Larry has $2,000 to go golfing with.
Well, he had it all along, now he can spend it without the wrath of the wifey.
Me thinks.
Yay, Kawasaki!
Could have been a sweatshirt with one of those pouch pockets in the front, maybe. Maybe he didn’t tell his wife because he thought she’d be pissed. 20 $100 bills isn’t all that bulky, in any event.
The Goodwill store didn’t report it to the cops for a few days, which means he didn’t insist the cops be involved. If he was trying to come up with some creative way to get the money back without having to admit how he got it, I would think he’d have done something to ensure that he got it back - not just handed it to the Goodwill manager and said “Look what I found!”
Didn’t anybody notice that this occurred on April Fool’s Day? My guess is the whole story is a hoax.
I’d buy the hoax angle if the story hadn’t been posted on the 13th, and if they didn’t make specific mention of April Fool’s day and include the “No fooling,” line.
The guy lives not far from me. He was interviewed on NPR today, and got lots of press in the local paper. Frankly, he sounds pretty legit.
Nothing sets off my radar.
Not everyone who donates to Goodwill does as they are supposed to – i.e., donate clean clothing in good condition. The Goodwill also doesn’t have time/resources to wash everything as it comes in. They basically sort, price and get stuff out there.
We aren’t told how long he was in the store, how much he bought, etc. All we know is he is 69 and frequently shops at the Goodwill for bargains. There may not have been a changing room, or he may just have picked up a few things, thinking he would return them later. If he’s a “regular” there, he knows the drill. My secretary is a regular at our local department store; she buys things there and, because she doesn’t have time on her lunch hour to try them on. If they don’t fit, she brings them back.
Well, perhaps the shirt was marked his size, but when he got it home, it fit wrong. It happens. How many times have you tried on something in your size only to find that, ahem, it’s a smidge tight?
Sure, but we aren’t told what kind of shirt it was, where the pockets were, etc.
Sometimes long-married couples don’t talk to each other. Shocking, but true.
Maybe because it’s tax day, who knows, but I’d like to believe in someone who isn’t all about the money.
I buy from goodwill every now and again and I’ve never tried on clothing before I bought it.
The ones near my home don’t have changing rooms, and since I’m not sure if the thing has been washed, I make my best guess and go for it. Hasn’t failed me yet.
(Actually, I never try on shirts when I buy them from any store. Only pants and shoes)
All the individual points have perfectly reasonable explanations, but looking at all of them together, it seems a bit odd. But it could happen, and since I haven’t heard any connection to anything illegal, I’ll just shrug and say “Yay, him.”
Possible scenario: Guy hides money in a bulky sweatshirt and packs it away somewhere. He either forgets about it (could happen if he was a hoarder or getting senile), dies, or someone else in his family finds the old shirt stuffed in the back of a closet when looking for things to give away. The shirt ends up getting tossed into a box and taken to goodwill with a pile of other things. Goodwill people sorting through the boxes pull out the shirt, give it a quick once-over, it looks clean so it goes straight to the rack. Shopper sees a shirt that looks good, pulls it off the racj and buys it, then discovers the money when he gets home.
The part about not telling his wife makes me wonder if he had the money all along and needed a cover story for how he got it, but as others have said, there are couples who simply don’t talk, or feel “my money, my business.”
That amount of money would make a huge bulge, but assuming the whole story is true:
Uncle Fred died, cousin Mary gives his clothes to Goodwill in a heap, not knowing Uncle Fred stashed his emergency cash in a place no thief would think to find.
Uncle Fred donated the shirt to Goodwill and forgot he put the money there.
Uncle Fred is wealthy and though this was a good way to spread his wealth, so some unknown person who simply needed a shirt. During Christmas, somebody on one of the threads mentioned they gave a give for an infant child to charity, and they stuck a $20 bill hidden in an envelope for the mother in the gift.
Pardon the typos above…I have a new computer and the font is very tiny and am having problems seeing what I type!