Finders keepers? Buyer finds $7.5 million in cash in auctioned Southern California storage unit

Desert Sun ^ | 11/23/18 | Nicole Hayden

[Simon Green]

So...what would you have done? Settle for “only” a million or two? Give it all back? Say “ Finders keepers” and not even contact the original owners?

[fishtank]

SSS

[Tudorfly]

Drug money? Often comes with stipulations, such as “You keep it, you and your family die.”

[Lazamataz]

Dotson said when the original owners of the storage unit found out that their storage locker sold, they had their attorney contact the new owner to negotiate a deal to reclaim the money. The attorney originally offered the new unit owner $600,000 of the $7.5 million, but they eventually agreed to keep $1.2 million and return the rest.

Guaran-damned-tee that the original unit owners are getting a proctology exam RIGHT NOW by both the IRS and the DEA.

[Ann Archy]

First of all.....the “FRIEND” should NEVER have told this story to ANYONE!! She’s just asking for her fiends to be KILLED for this money!

[gubamyster]

Why would you go around telling people? People have big mouths. Somebody will want their money back & track you down.

Invest the money & don’t tell anybody where you got it.

[surrey]

The IRS must thrilled.

[Hot Tabasco]

She did the right thing, she returned the cash to the original owner and received a reward.

Had she kept the money and said nothing and it belonged to either the mafia or a cartel, they would have eventually found her.

It would be nice to find out who the owner was and why they had $7.5 million in cash........

[Billthedrill]

At this point you do what the judge tells you to. I'd be concerned that the money was traceable illegally or immorally obtained so just keeping it might not be the optimum strategy. As it is, they're $1.2 mil to the good, apparently perfectly legally. At least until the IRS gets through with it...

[FrdmLvr]

This would serve as inspiration for a good book or movie.

[bk1000]

How do you stash $7.5MM cash in a safe in a storage unit and forget to pay rent to the point they auction the contents? The idiot that told everyone reminds me of someone who recently dug up a hoard of gold coins and immediately shouted it to the news media. Some things one should keep to oneself.

[SuperLuminal]

Yep! Lesson learned... This is exactly why I don't keep my Social Security or retirement checks in my storage unit...

Well...Not exactly... There isn't enough room in there because of all those ammo boxes...

[SMGFan]

There has to be a interesting reason why this was all kept in cash rather than deposit in a bank.

A story someone would be killed over.

Soon to be a Law & Order type or NCIS story.

[NormsRevenge]

They should have kept it.

You stored 7.5 million but the unit ends up getting auctioned?

They could have paid for the unit.. something very fishy here.

[CatOwner]

Had she kept the money and said nothing and it belonged to either the mafia or a cartel, they would have eventually found her.

The fact that they advertised this doesn't prevent them from harm in the future.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Investing might be tough, because banks report cash deposits of $10,000 or more to the government. At some point, someone, somewhere , will start asking questions about where that cash came from.

[NormsRevenge]

I smell a Hollyweed thriller coming soon to a theater near you .. that and pile(s) of old 100 dollar bills.

[gaijin]

“Three Kings” —a movie about some SF guy who find tons of cash in Iraq.

In fact there was a similar true story, though the guys were regular infantry, not Special Forces.

And the amount they found was near one BILLION in cash.

[C210N]

Although the money was probably lost by some rich person, to whom the loss was probably no big deal... I'd hate to think it was some poor person who could have really used it.

[metmom]

It’s not like she found it.

She bought it and what comes with the property is hers, no matter what.

You take the money and don’t say anything.