Posted on 06/13/2009 8:28:29 AM PDT by george76
For four decades, the 1-ton safe sat in the back of a family shoe store, and as the years rolled past, its secrets were seemingly forgotten. When the family closed up shop, renting the building to a shoe repairman, the safe stayed put. No one remembered the combination. No one knew what to do with it.
Now, everyone is rushing to stake a claim.
Dumped in a vacant lot in neighboring Lawrence last November as an obsolete, oversize nuisance, the old-fashioned vault was discovered to hold a small fortune - $178,496 in crisp currency. The money was packed in blue bank envelopes, wrapped in old Daher's Shoes shopping bags and a white Nike T-shirt, and tucked in a locked compartment.
The surprise discovery is the target of an intra-family court battle involving four competing parties, though none can explain why someone would stash so much money away and apparently not tell anyone.
John Belko, the widower of Joyce Belko, who ran Daher's for years before dying of cancer in 2003, believes the money rightfully belongs to her estate. Joyce Belko's brother, Ken Daher, who bought the property in 1996, says it belongs to him.
Even the tow truck driver who was paid $200 to haul the vault away says he should get the money, as he is the last person to possess the safe. And the state government, after learning about the contested windfall in local press accounts, is chasing the money...
Amid all the competing claims, the police department has had enough. Last week, the department filed a petition seeking to have Essex Superior Court take the money and determine its rightful owner.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Statute of Limitations!!!
If I had $178,496 in crisp currency, and the feds came snooping, I would kindly explain I’m a Community Organizer and an ACORN volunteer.
I’ve no doubt I would soon be leaving with $378,496.00.
The article doesn’t say who actually made the effort to open the safe...and why???
Exactly. I cant figure out why the guy who finally opened it didnt just keep his mouth shut.
The money will almost all be taken by The Lawyer Industry, the Federal Government, and most of all, the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts.
Why?
(From the article): “...the state government, after learning about the contested windfall in local press accounts, is chasing the money to recoup $162,000 in unpaid medical bills from the estate of Sally Daher, Joyce Belko and Daher’s mother, who died in 2001 after spending several years in a public nursing home.”
Where assets become available, the state always gets every penny of its Nursing Home Medicaid money back. And they are VERY aggressive in doing so.
Nobody from the family will ever see a penny.
the article DOES say..it was the local fire department who spotted the safe in the lot..even then, the safe was empty..the money was in a “hidden” compartment within the safe...
Ooops.
Scratch that deviously wonderful idea of mine.
Will never work.
You see..... I’m a TWP.
(Typical White Person)
Plus I’m a man. And not a Wise Latina Woman.
(Damn, I’m so screwed!)
Thanks for reading the article.
I admit - I did not. But yet I knew what the result would be.
I happen to know a thing or two about America’s confiscatory greedy legal system.
And if any of the parties do get a dime... I’ll eat my hat.
just tell them where to mail your check...stimulus funds should cover you...
***$178,496 in crisp currency. ***
Silver certificates or worthless Federal Reserve Notes?
Possession is 9/10s of the law.
You are soooooo right. People are not smart enough to keep their mouth shut. You find something, you keep your mouth shut, unless you know for certain whose it was and who the rightful owner IS, otherwise if it is going to become a pissing match, keep your mouth shut. Apprently the family was so stupid that they never questioned the safe and sold it to the new owner who never questioned it and so on. That constitutes abandonment. Hope someone keeps an eye on this and keeps reporting on it.
I don't think so because he says the money belongs to her estate....when in fact....at least 1/2 of it is his in a community property state. (IMHO)
Abandoned property opened by firefighters... Fine the tow truck operator for dumping, give half to the lot owner, and half to the city, and permit the shop owner to sue the renter for theft of the safe.
"Three weeks later, firefighters on patrol spotted the abandoned box, one of its doors ripped off, seemingly empty save for some old papers and wind-blown leaves. But upon closer inspection, they discovered an inner compartment, which they opened with a torch and jackhammer, yielding the hidden treasure"
Its possible that there was lots more cash in the open compartment and explain why the secret stash was missed. Just speculating ... ;-)
There's something just a little wrong with this story...Since there were papers...they knew it was from that Shoe Business....
Firemen do know a lot about "breaking in" to things and places...
All the legal junk I'm reading says it goes to the widower and I'd add that at least 1/2 as community property.
“Somebody needs to learn to keep their mouth shut.”
Really!!! Why on Earth would anyone go around telling everybody? I find money all the time but never turn it in (never more than $50)........
Finders keepers unless you here odf someone losing it and they can identify specifically where and how much...
Waiting for Acorn to step in.
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