Champ Kind

It makes me sick that there are people out there like this.

Sorry, con artists: Cash owner found
Frank Gray

If you think you can scam Brent Eminger out of the bag of cold cash he found in a grocery cart at a local store, quit plotting.

Eminger has found the real owner, and the cash has been claimed.

We wrote about Eminger on Tuesday and how he had been trying to find the owner of the money, what he called a substantial amount, for two weeks. He knew the name of the owner. It was written on the bag.

But he was nowhere to be found.

Anyone can claim to be the person whose name was on the bag, so to claim the cash, the owner had to be able to estimate the amount of cash involved, describe the bag, tell the denominations in the wad and provide some details about where he’d lost it. The bag also contained a receipt from another store with a list of items bought, and the claimant had to be able to recall that as well.

Well, the real owner, a man who lives in Plymouth, called Eminger and explained everything in great detail. He’d bought a bunch of conduit at a home improvement store and tried to haul it out in a grocery cart. Outside the store, the conduit all rolled out of the cart onto the ground. So, frustrated, the man picked up the conduit, shoved the cart aside and, arms full, walked to his car, forgetting the bag of cash.

He knew the denominations of the bills, all ones and fives, and about how much was there.

Most convincing, he knew that the receipt found in the bag came from a Family Dollar store in Churubusco and that among the purchases he had made there was a slew of paper plates.

On top of all that, the guy had a driver’s license with the same name as the name on the bag.

The man offered Eminger a $50 reward and asked Eminger to send him a check for the balance, which he has done.

That could be the end of the story, but it’s not.

The biggest part of the story, in some ways, is the calls that Eminger got.

Oh, a few were from people thanking him for being honest. But that wasn’t a hard decision for him to make, Eminger said. It was just the right thing to do.

The real interesting part is hearing about the people who called, trying to get their hands on the money.

A woman called the paper and started talking about how she’d lost her bag of money at the store and the bag had her name on it. She said she’d lost $3,000.

Someone else called Eminger and said he’d lost the bag of money. He gave the names of a couple of big-box stores where he may have lost it. That’s a good strategy. Name a few big-box stores and there’s a good chance one of them will be right.

But this guy completely muffed the description of the bag, and his guess that it contained $3,000 was way off. As for the receipt that was in the bag, well, he didn’t even bother to try to guess that. So he gets the prize behind curtain No. 2 – zero.

Another man claimed the cash belonged to his girlfriend who had just cashed her paycheck and gone to a party with a stranger where she was drugged, raped and robbed of $1,250, presumably in a bag. Eminger wondered why the caller wasn’t more concerned about the welfare of his girlfriend than he was about the cash. But the $1,250 guess was way off, too.

A handful of others called, trying to fish for hints, “trying to thieve the money right out of my hand,” Eminger said.

Those calls didn’t really surprise Eminger. He expected a few like that.

But it’s nice to know the money was returned to the right person, and those who thought they could con Eminger struck out.

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I will smash your face into a car windshield and then take your mother, Dorothy Mantooth, out to a nice seafood dinner and never call her again!

Tell me about it, this morning, I woke up and I shit a squirrel, but what I can't get is the damn thing is still alive. So now, I've got a shit covered squirrel running around my office and I don't know what to name it.

M Richardson

In 1968 the army still paid in cash - last working day of the month everybody lined up and went through the company dayroom to get their month's pay in 20s. The fort I was stationed at was too small to have it's own full finance unit, and those duties were taken care of by a larger fort in the D.C. Prior to payday, an officer/currier was sent to collect the money. Lots and Lots of money, mostly in 20s, bundled and packed in those canvas bank bags.
The officer sent on this particular trip got out to the car and threw some of the bags on the roof of the car to get the keys out of his pocket. Of course he left one there. The bag finally fell off and was picked up by a civilian driving behind him.
The civilian tried, but failed, to catch up with the military vehicle (anybody familiar with D.C. traffic?) but, having been in the service and stationed in at the same little fort I was at, figured that was the destination. He then drove to the fort and turned the bag over to the MPs at the gate. Anyone want to guess how many neatly packaged 20 dollar bills fit in one of those canvas bags? Or try converting that amount from 1968 dollars to current value? Especially in unmarked, used, non-sequential, tax-free cash?
I suppose everybody's honor has a price. When I am faced with decisions like your Mr. Eminger, I think about that guy with the bag of 20s. I like to think my price would be at least that high.

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Race cars, not greyhounds!

Tight-Waist

Call me naive, but I believe 90% of the people would do the same thing.

garagelogic

I wish I could agree, but it's probably under 50%

AKH

Agreed!

r.payton@att.net

This is kind of a strange variation on an old con where someone 'finds'' a sack full of money then offers to split it with someone -the con is the money is fake and when the [usually]elderly person puts up their good money as a good faith token -the con man leaves the 'mark' with a bag of toilet paper money-sick

RYou

Nah, I think it's a much higher percentage, but maybe it's more close related to the region.

I was dropping my wife off at Amtrak. I hate sitting on my wallet when driving and always pull it out and leave it in the console. For whatever reason, she moved it. To top things off, I get on board with her and load her suitace in the rack above, less than a minute and the train leaves the station. I'm on board, no ticky. The conductor was nice enough to write me a pass for the return trip from the next station. All told, I just wasted about an hour and a half. I get back and leave.

About a block and one half away, a car pulls up next to me and he starts flailing his arms. I roll the window down and he asks me my name. Then he says I found your wallet and left it with the ticket office. Light turns green and he takes off. I didn't even get a chance to thank him or write down a plate number.

Back the ticket office, try identifying yourself without your wallet. The ticket guy refused to open the wallet to look at my driver's ID. I finally got a cop posted outside to help out and he opened it.

I never new I lost it and had that kid not caught up with me in my car, I might never have known where I lost it.

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19-0 ? Hell No ! 18 Wins and 1 GIANT Loss !