Money Boy finds $10000 in KC hotel room. Turns it in. Would you have done the same? - Page 5

Deberg_1990 · 05-29-2013, 06:31 PM

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 · 05-30-2013, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crossbow

http://youtu.be/A939QRRSNV4

[IMG][/IMG]

dang.....this place is slipping.
way to pick up the slack.

lcarus · 05-30-2013, 08:23 AM

I'd take it. I don't have a family to worry about. Plus, like someone already said, the person really in trouble would be the one that left it there. Not all drug dealers are hardened murderers. A lot of them are paranoid dumbasses who are probably pooping themselves that the cops will find it. For a dealer, worst case scenario is someone turning the money into the cops and then the cops investigating and busting the dealer via hotel hall cameras or whatever.

If it's the type of dealer that would kill someone mob style, 10k probably isn't that big a deal to them.

Or I'm just talking out of my ass because I had too much coffee and it's early. Either way, I'd take it and leave. Maybe try to pay the hotel clerk to erase me from their records.

journeyscarab · 05-30-2013, 08:57 AM

Turn it in and don't take part in an interview.

**Rain Man** · 05-30-2013, 09:01 AM

After all of this, it'd be funny if the $10,000 was owned by some 80 year-old man who was planning to surprise his granddaughter with college tuition.

mesmith31 · 05-30-2013, 09:11 AM

Maybe someone just severely overestimated the MSRP on the Gideon's Bible in the drawer.

ChiefaRoo · 05-30-2013, 09:19 AM

I used to go gamble in Tunica when I lived in Memphis (in my mid 20's). One night I went on a crazy heater and won like 12k in thirty minutes playing Blackjack. I cashed out in $100 and $50 bills and had them put it in an envelope with a rubber band around it. The following Monday I went to the bank to deposit it. I was unshaved, ball cap, sweat pants and a t-shirt that had a Starbuck stain on it. I fill out the deposit slip and drive up. The girl rolls the drawer out and smiles. "Thump" I throw the wad into the drawer along with the deposit slip into the drawer with the rubber band holding the bills.

She gets so nervous, says wait a minute. Then she tells me I have to come into the bank to deposit it. I'm like, no way I look like crap but I do it. All the buttoned up old ladies are staring at me when I walk in. They look at me and are thinking crazy thoughts about where the money came from. The bank Mgr. comes over to me and says I can't deposit more than $10K without filling out a form. I'm like, Ok whatever. Fill it out and deposit it. They all look at me like I'm going to pull out a gun any moment. I finally whisper to the Mgr. that I won the cash at the casino.

Later I found out that anything over $10K is a possible Govt. flag and you get taxed on it unless you can show other losses.

lcarus · 05-30-2013, 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

After all of this, it'd be funny if the $10,000 was owned by some 80 year-old man who was planning to surprise his granddaughter with college tuition.

Heh, or some independently wealthy guy who just wanted to leave a gift for the next person staying in the room.

**Rain Man** · 05-30-2013, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChiefaRoo

I used to go gamble in Tunica when I lived in Memphis (in my mid 20's). One night I went on a crazy heater and won like 12k in thirty minutes playing Blackjack. I cashed out in $100 and $50 bills and had them put it in an envelope with a rubber band around it. The following Monday I went to the bank to deposit it. I was unshaved, ball cap, sweat pants and a t-shirt that had a Starbuck stain on it. I fill out the deposit slip and drive up. The girl rolls the drawer out and smiles. "Thump" I throw the wad into the drawer along with the deposit slip into the drawer with the rubber band holding the bills.

She gets so nervous, says wait a minute. Then she tells me I have to come into the bank to deposit it. I'm like, no way I look like crap but I do it. All the buttoned up old ladies are staring at me when I walk in. They look at me and are thinking crazy thoughts about where the money came from. The bank Mgr. comes over to me and says I can't deposit more than $10K without filling out a form. I'm like, Ok whatever. Fill it out and deposit it. They all look at me like I'm going to pull out a gun any moment. I finally whisper to the Mgr. that I won the cash at the casino.

Later I found out that anything over $10K is a possible Govt. flag and you get taxed on it unless you can show other losses.

So did you put it on your taxes?

**Rain Man** · 05-30-2013, 09:26 AM

When you think about it, there's probably no more than 200 rooms in the hotel, and the odds are there are some high probability combinations of bills that make up the cash (all $100s, all $50s, all $20, etc.)

If there are 200 rooms and 5 likely combinations of bills, that's 1,000 combinations. How many members do we have on Chiefsplanet? I'll assign combinations, you guys put in claims, and we'll split any winnings - 1/2 winning claim, 1/3 donation to CP, 1/6 for me for bookkeeping.

Dayze · 05-30-2013, 09:27 AM

i would've made 6, $2k deposits.

tooge · 05-30-2013, 09:27 AM

If I find a wallet I return it. If I find 10K with no name associated with it, I keep it.

Johnny Vegas · 05-30-2013, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

After all of this, it'd be funny if the $10,000 was owned by some 80 year-old man who was planning to surprise his granddaughter with college tuition.

thanks for 1 years worth of tuition papa.

seclark · 05-30-2013, 09:38 AM

is anyone else having a hard time calling hilton kansas city airport hotel? I keep getting a busy signal.
sec

Dayze · 05-30-2013, 09:39 AM

they didn't pay their $10k phone bill

ChiefaRoo · 05-30-2013, 09:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

So did you put it on your taxes?

I kept "records" of all my gambling for that year. Did not put it on my taxes and the IRass never inquired.

05-29-2013, 06:31 PM
Deberg_1990 In Search of a Life Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: San Antonio Tx. Casino cash: $3914454	Boy finds $10000 in KC hotel room. Turns it in. Would you have done the same? 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.”
Posts: 66,914

05-30-2013, 08:23 AM	#62
lcarus Everybody Lies. Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: 22 Acacia Avenue Casino cash: $1909928	I'd take it. I don't have a family to worry about. Plus, like someone already said, the person really in trouble would be the one that left it there. Not all drug dealers are hardened murderers. A lot of them are paranoid dumbasses who are probably pooping themselves that the cops will find it. For a dealer, worst case scenario is someone turning the money into the cops and then the cops investigating and busting the dealer via hotel hall cameras or whatever. If it's the type of dealer that would kill someone mob style, 10k probably isn't that big a deal to them. Or I'm just talking out of my ass because I had too much coffee and it's early. Either way, I'd take it and leave. Maybe try to pay the hotel clerk to erase me from their records.
Posts: 17,334

05-30-2013, 08:57 AM	#63
journeyscarab SHOCKERS BABY! Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Overland Park, KS Casino cash: $3763555	Turn it in and don't take part in an interview.
Posts: 3,414

05-30-2013, 09:01 AM	#64
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3368491 VARSITY	After all of this, it'd be funny if the $10,000 was owned by some 80 year-old man who was planning to surprise his granddaughter with college tuition. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,247

05-30-2013, 09:11 AM	#65
mesmith31 Starter Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: West Des Moines, Iowa Casino cash: $10005205	Maybe someone just severely overestimated the MSRP on the Gideon's Bible in the drawer.
Posts: 364

05-30-2013, 09:19 AM	#66
ChiefaRoo MVP Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Austin,TX Casino cash: $5197505	I used to go gamble in Tunica when I lived in Memphis (in my mid 20's). One night I went on a crazy heater and won like 12k in thirty minutes playing Blackjack. I cashed out in $100 and $50 bills and had them put it in an envelope with a rubber band around it. The following Monday I went to the bank to deposit it. I was unshaved, ball cap, sweat pants and a t-shirt that had a Starbuck stain on it. I fill out the deposit slip and drive up. The girl rolls the drawer out and smiles. "Thump" I throw the wad into the drawer along with the deposit slip into the drawer with the rubber band holding the bills. She gets so nervous, says wait a minute. Then she tells me I have to come into the bank to deposit it. I'm like, no way I look like crap but I do it. All the buttoned up old ladies are staring at me when I walk in. They look at me and are thinking crazy thoughts about where the money came from. The bank Mgr. comes over to me and says I can't deposit more than $10K without filling out a form. I'm like, Ok whatever. Fill it out and deposit it. They all look at me like I'm going to pull out a gun any moment. I finally whisper to the Mgr. that I won the cash at the casino. Later I found out that anything over $10K is a possible Govt. flag and you get taxed on it unless you can show other losses.
Posts: 11,848

05-30-2013, 09:26 AM	#69
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3368491 VARSITY	When you think about it, there's probably no more than 200 rooms in the hotel, and the odds are there are some high probability combinations of bills that make up the cash (all $100s, all $50s, all $20, etc.) If there are 200 rooms and 5 likely combinations of bills, that's 1,000 combinations. How many members do we have on Chiefsplanet? I'll assign combinations, you guys put in claims, and we'll split any winnings - 1/2 winning claim, 1/3 donation to CP, 1/6 for me for bookkeeping. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
Posts: 141,247

05-30-2013, 09:27 AM	#70
Dayze Resident Glue Sniffer Join Date: Nov 2003 Casino cash: $5219358	i would've made 6, $2k deposits. __________________ Life is 99% inspiration, 1% Perspiration, and 1% Attention to Detial. RIP & Godspeed: Saccoppo Lonewolf Ed Fire Me Boy
Posts: 37,358

05-30-2013, 09:27 AM	#71
tooge MVP Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Liberty, MO Casino cash: $3994112	If I find a wallet I return it. If I find 10K with no name associated with it, I keep it.
Posts: 14,964

05-30-2013, 09:38 AM	#73
seclark MVP Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: nemo Casino cash: $1739900	is anyone else having a hard time calling hilton kansas city airport hotel? I keep getting a busy signal. sec __________________ "Mr. seclark. Wrong for gravy, wrong for jelly, wrong for biscuits." -rj "If every Planeteer who was disliked by another Planeteer stopped being a Planeteer we wouldn't have any Planeteers." -rj
Posts: 13,399

05-30-2013, 09:39 AM	#74
Dayze Resident Glue Sniffer Join Date: Nov 2003 Casino cash: $5219358	they didn't pay their $10k phone bill __________________ Life is 99% inspiration, 1% Perspiration, and 1% Attention to Detial. RIP & Godspeed: Saccoppo Lonewolf Ed Fire Me Boy
Posts: 37,358