Posted on 04/10/2008 12:37:40 PM PDT by Dallas
(CBS) It was a tempting sight for struggling landscaper Eli Estrada: a bag filled with $140,000 on a Cerritos street.
There was his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business.
But turning it over to Long Beach police last month was the right thing to do, he said.
The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong."
The Bank of America money bag was lost March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The unmarked $20 bills were bundled into wads of $20,000 and bound for ATMs.
Long Beach police Sgt. Dina Zapalski said Estrada handed over the money bag to an officer who took a report at one of the landscaper's job sites.
Zapalski said she had never heard of someone turning in so much cash.
"I've had people come to me with purses and wallets with cash in it and they'll turn it in," Zapalski told the Los Angeles Times. "But not like this."
Brinks later gave him a $2,000 reward.
"They should have given him 10 percent," Estrada's mother told the Times.
I agree, what I’m really trying to say is that if I were him I’d feel borderline-used afterwards, as if the reward was just there to be just enough to satisfy the PR image. Even though that may also be the driving force behind larger rewards that are sometimes given, at least I could tell myself that wasn’t the case. I don’t know if I could convince myself of it in this case.
Did she repond it would take another 100.
They might have accused him of stealing it and spending the other 20,000 lol. “Thief turns himself in” might have been the headline.
But, $140,000.00 found in the middle of the street??? Man, that would be tempting. Very tempting.
$140K on the ground? I would be looking over my shoulder all the time for the drug-dealers who I would imagine would want their money back.
BOA probably makes 140K every second in overdraft fees.
Shoulda had a V-8...
I knew some now-DEA agents that got in it for this very reason. Finding millions in cash with nobody looking was their dream.
Then there's the tiny percentage of agents that are in it 'for the children'.
But probably a lot of people who use a lawn service post here.
If the cops found the cash on him they would take it anyway.
All cash over $10,000 is drug money until YOU prove that you earned and saved it.
Talk about pre-screeded, if that's not an integrity check, what is?
Mother is correct.
Me too. A pox on them
Well for starters, he'll be able to look himself in the mirror every morning.
And what do you think he will end up with after the gubmint confiscates some of it for taxes.....$900, $1.2k ???
If you're implying the gardener may have taken some off the top............ I wonder if someone who would suspicion this isn't an
just wondering
I like to think I’d do the right thing.
Then I look at what I owe the IRS this year and realize I’m not entirely principled.
Good for Mr. Estrada. He did the right thing.
It is said that every man has his price. I suspect that most men have considered or fantasized just what their price might be.
I too may have a price, but I truly don’t know what it would be.
I do know that my integrity is worth far more than $140K, and I also know that once you have sold or given away your integrity, no amount of money can ever buy it back. It’s just gone, that part of what makes a man know in his heart that he is a good man.... is forever gone.
When I was a kid I used to wonder...... “If there are no witnesses, am I truly alone?” I didn’t think so then and I don’t think so now. (heck, if nothing else, there are those Ten Suggestions). ;>)
If my life leads me to living with just myself, I would like to respect and trust that guy.
Besides, if honesty and integrity wasn’t important to me, I might have become a politician.
Again, Mr. Estrada did the right thing.
BTW.... None of what I say pertains to those stupid sport fishing rules. ;>)
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