Boy finds $10000 in KC hotel room. Turns it in. Would you have done the same?

[Deberg_1990]

What would you have done?



http://www.kansascity.com/2013/05/29...otel-room.html


Ten-year-old Tyler Schaefer likes to find stuff.

He sticks his fingers in coin-operated machine slots, scans the ground for lost cash and looks for prize tickets hanging out of arcade games at Chuck E. Cheese.

But neither the boy nor his father was prepared for what Tyler would find in a drawer Saturday night in their room at the Hilton Kansas City Airport hotel.

It was $10,000, and for now no one has claimed it. If no one ever claims the money, it could some day belong to the Schaefers.

Cody Schaefer, Tyler’s father, said Tyler started looking for things a few years ago.

“He looks for stuff at random,” Schaefer said. “He’s very observant.”

About an hour after they checked into their room, Tyler began methodically opening all the drawers.

“What are you doing?” his dad asked.

“Somebody might have left something cool,” Tyler explained, while continuing his quest.

Then he announced: “I found money!”

Schaefer figured his son had stumbled upon a $10 bill or something. But when Schaefer looked closer, he saw neatly stacked bills totaling $10,000.

“Is that real?” Schaefer wondered.


The bills bore the appropriate water marks and appeared to have come from a bank, Schaefer said.

“We didn’t know what to do at first,” Schaefer said.

They contemplated various theories of how the money came to be abandoned. Maybe it was a drug dealer? Maybe it was someone who had recently sold a vehicle?

Schaefer told his son that they could not keep the cash because they didn’t know to whom it belonged.

“We need to call the cops,” Schaefer told him.

They found two off-duty police officers working security at the hotel and gave them the cash. The officers summoned Sgt. Randy Francis, a property and evidence supervisor, who logged and stored the cash at a police facility.

In 13 years working in property and evidence, Francis said, he has only seen one other instance of a large amount of cash being surrendered –– and it was about $1,000.

In that case, an older woman’s shopping cart ran over a wad of rolled up cash in a northeast area grocery store parking lot about five years ago. When no one stepped forward to claim it, the woman got it back, Francis said.

No one has called the hotel or tried to claim the $10,000 yet, which is surprising, Francis said.

“I think I would know I was missing $10,000 pretty quick,” he said.

Police don’t know how long the money has been in the room. They say it could have been hidden for months and they can’t track down every nightly guest who stayed in that room recently.

The hotel’s general manager did not return phone calls for this story.

According to Missouri statutes, lost money can revert to a finder after about seven months if no one can prove ownership.

Schaefer, a truck driver and mechanic who lives in South Dakota, meets his ex-wife in Kansas City every year to get his three children for summer vacation. It’s a central meeting point between their homes.

During their stopover in Kansas City this year, Schaefer and his kids visited the new Sea Life Aquarium and Legoland Discovery Center, where Tyler read every exhibit and completed the scavenger hunts. Tyler, a Cub Scout and fan of Pirates of the Caribbean movies, is always looking for clues and treasure, his dad said.

Schaefer told several friends and relatives about his son’s most recent “find,” and nearly everyone told him he did the right thing.

“But one person said I was an idiot,” he said.

The way Schaefer looks at it: “I didn’t come there with $10,000 and I didn’t leave with $10,000, so it was a wash.”

[Dayze]

I'd hold it ransom. Give me 10k or you'll never see that cash again.

[PunkinDrublic]

I would put it in a safe place and not say shit. That's the logical part of me speaking. Realistically I'd fly to Thailand and end my life like Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas.

[RippedmyFlesh]

Originally Posted by Donger

No.

So you would put yourself and family in harm's way over a criminal's 10k?

[chefsos]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

You just made me wince.

Maybe it's a couple of lesbian drug dealers. Better?

[-King-]

Originally Posted by RippedmyFlesh

So you would put yourself and family in harm's way over a criminal's 10k?

How would his family be in danger? How would the criminal know he has it?

[Shogun]

Id Turn it in and decline to be apart of a story for a newspaper.

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Donger

No.

I'm not buying it Donger - You turn it in, Mate.

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

I'm not buying it Donger - You turn it in, Mate.

No kidding, I'm sure he has plenty of filthy oil money already.

[RippedmyFlesh]

Originally Posted by -King-

How would his family be in danger? How would the criminal know he has it?

You find that amount of money and don't turn it in it's basically stealing.
Think about who you would be stealing from.
And it wouldn't take long to find out who was next to have room.

[-King-]

Originally Posted by RippedmyFlesh

You find that amount of money and don't turn it in it's basically stealing.
Think about who you would be stealing from.
And it wouldn't take long to find out who was next to have room.

So you think hotels just tell random people who was stayed in what rooms?

[PunkinDrublic]

Two high paid hookers at the same time! After that who cares what happens because you've already lived the dream.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by RippedmyFlesh

You find that amount of money and don't turn it in it's basically stealing.
Think about who you would be stealing from.
And it wouldn't take long to find out who was next to have room.

How is it stealing to keep a legitimately lost, untrackable/untracked object?

[Consistent1]

Originally Posted by -King-

So you think hotels just tell random people who was stayed in what rooms?

Not only that, but you would think some staff member would have found it. I would tend to think they would open the drawers to make sure there isn't stuff in there like lube, condoms, God knows what else. That would be a tough call, one would at least think about keeping it before deciding for sure.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by -King-

So you think hotels just tell random people who was stayed in what rooms?

You think somebody with so much money that they can just leave 10k laying around wouldn't have enough money to find out? If the person(S) that left the money remembers before you check out then all they have to do is knock on the hotel room door.

simply not worth the risk imo.

If the person doesn't remember the money at all then you get the money after no claim

If the person is a nice guy then you will probably get some kind of reward when claimed.

everything else just probably doesn't work out well for you if you don't turn it in.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by chefsos

Maybe it's a couple of lesbian drug dealers. Better?

Better, but still not good.