MOVIE theater employees were left baffled after bundles of cash were found stashed nearby within a week of each other in a bizarre unsolved mystery story.
Investigators are still trying to piece together how the money got to be in the restrooms of the movie theater and a KFC next door, and who it belongs to.
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The first bag had over $20,000 in cash and was found in the bathroom of Avalon Theater in Marysville, Ohio — about an hour from Columbus — last weekend, according to Marysville Police Division Capt. Nate Sachs.
Then, another $10,000 was spotted by workers in the restroom of a nearby Kentucky Fried Chicken on Thursday night.
“They were hidden in a way that you would have to know where to look to find them,” Sachs told local NBC affiliate WCMH.
“Wasn’t like you walk in and they were behind a trash can or anything like that. It was hidden,” he said.
Read more about money finds
Once found, employees at both locations promptly handed over the cash to the authorities — without being able to keep any of it for themselves.
“It’s disbelief. It’s disbelief and honestly, [the employees] are just curious as to why the money would be there in the first place,” Sachs said.
The officer added that he had been on the job for almost twenty years and had never seen anything like this.
“Truly bizarre, just weird, especially two times in one week in our town,” he noted.
He said the investigation into the lost money is ongoing.
“We’re looking at the avenues that they’re probably connected. At this point with an open investigation, we have not linked it up yet but anything’s possible at this point,” Sachs said.
“We’re just looking at everything,” he added.
Police said they do not expect to hear about any other large sums of money hidden in Marysville bathrooms and discouraged the curious from going treasure hunting.
He also urged anyone who may find lost money to contact authorities.
GOOD SAMARITANS EVERYWHERE
The lucky employees who found the money in Marysville are not the first to find lost stashes of cash — and then hand it straight to police.
A Canadian woman found $1,300 in small bills stuffed inside a bed sheet that she purchased at her local thrift store in 2014.
Jody Waldron did not discover the money until she went to wash the sheets, which she said were still in their packaging but had been opened.
She said she found a wad of $20 and $50 stuffed inside an envelope along with a bit of information, but no name or address.
Rules on finding money
The saying “finders, keepers
While state and local laws may differ slightly, the majority will require you to attempt to find the owner of the money.
If you fail to make reasonable efforts to track down the owner, many states can charge you with theft or larceny of lost property.
The penalty will most likely be based on the value of the lost property as larger finds that are kept without making reasonable efforts to find the owner may be classed as a felony rather than a misdemeanor.
The term reasonable efforts includes asking people nearby if they dropped any cash, checking the envelope or wallet (if there is one) for an ID, handing it into a nearby store, or contacting the police on a non-emergency line.
Some laws will authorize the police to return the money to the finder if no one has claimed it after a period of time.
Always check your local and state laws which will most likely outline what to do if you find property or cash.
It is also advised that you contact the police or a criminal defense lawyer who can assist in what the laws state and how you should proceed.
Source: Criminal Defense Lawyer
But Waldron was no ordinary citizen — she was a police officer who happened upon the lost money during her off time.
Nonetheless, the Good Samaritan said she immediately turned the money in to her colleagues and began searching for its rightful owner.
After a bit of legwork, the policewoman learned that the money belonged to an elderly woman named Connie Buttrick.
Sadly, she learned that Buttrick had passed away in 2002.
So Waldron set out to locate Waldron’s surviving family members and was able to track down her granddaughter, Barbara Chant.
The sheets were donated to the thrift store by her family when they cleaned out Buttrick’s home after her death, Chant explained to local reporters.
She had no idea her grandmother squirreled away such large sums of cash and was shocked no one had found it before.
“We never even looked. My grandmother was not a wealthy woman,” she said.
Her family was grateful that Waldron returned the money, she added, which they would put away for “a rainy day.”
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