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.”

[Hootie]

Originally Posted by Iowanian

I am not sure.

The hotel I checked into tonight I found stuff too.

The first room, I found the blankets sheets and pillows off of the bed, and blood and likely DNA on the pillow that were piled across the room from the bed, obviously not cleaned. The 2nd room I found something too. In some places it could be referred to as a nugget, but in this case, it was just a piece of turd that wasn't mine.

wtf hotel are you staying at??!

[-King-]

Seriously though. I'd take the money and I'd be checked out within 5 minutes.

[Hootie]

I wouldn't even check out.

Hotels are all CC guaranteed...they'll check you out at check out in the AM....

I'd just take that money and get the **** out of there.

[Iowanian]

It's a well known "Inn and suites" type place. The king suites......

Last week I went to a similar(hundred a weeknight) type place......3 of 4 rooms had dirty toilets, beds, mold in the fridges.

Not dives, but based on the last 2 weeks I'd hate to see what a Dive would look like inside.


I'd rather find $10k than a turd.

I definitely checked out, and I left the clerk with some words for the manager that would probably make for a good thread here.

[Hootie]

weird man

we have highly trained housekeepers

but

we also have our executive housekeeper who's entire job is to check every ****ing room they clean...as in, they leave all the drawers open, the lights on, the tv on, the bathroom seat up, etc...

if any of that happened in the hotel I work at...?

everyone would be fired

including me

[Iowanian]

You can wager that I'll be calling the manager and the manager's boss in the morning.

Never seen anything like it in what is supposed to be a decent place.

I forgot about the room I walked into after one of the others sucked and there were whole pecans and jelly on top of the refrigerator....and a skid mark in the shitter.

Lots of people should be fired for sure.

[BWillie]

You gotta turn it in. I agree, it is theft. That is someone elses money. They didnt leave a note saying hey this is for you. Ive almost left 6k before somewhere but I sure as hell would have high tailed it back right away. Say, now that I think about it imm missing one hundred $100 bills. I was up north of the river by the air port and I dont know what I did w them

And I agree, you dont wanna be taking money from ppl that have 10k cash just laying around. I have no qualms with ppl doing what they need to do to get money that is rightfully theirs. Do you want that to happen to you? When the bank accidently deposits money into your account do yoy just close your account and hide out? Let me know how that turns out for ya

[DaneMcCloud]

Walk, don't run.

Leave the room, money intact. Find another place to stay.

And sure as shit don't give an interview with a major media outlet.

[007]

Originally Posted by DoucheMcCloud

Walk, don't run.

Leave the room, money intact. Find another place to stay.

And sure as shit don't give an interview with a major media outlet.

The only problem with that is the hotel is not going to refund your money if you decide to find somewhere else to stay. You have to tell them about the money and they might let you move to another room.

[007]

Hopefully that article is a sting operation to get somebody to come forward and the names in the article are real.

EDIT

Well not exactly a sting operation but just a way to get the owner of the money to come in.

[crossbow]

Originally Posted by PunkinDrublic

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

http://youtu.be/A939QRRSNV4

[IMG][/IMG]

[BlackHelicopters]

Gotta be able to sleep at night. Turn the money in.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by 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.

The difference, as I see it, is Cage went and drank himself to death in Vegas. I can only assume you're going to Thailand so you can go out "death by ladyboy."

[baitism]

I would launder it at the casino.

[Johnny Vegas]

All the sudden you're a criminal if you have 10K in cash? So all those poker players in Vegas are criminal I suppose. as to the questions. I'd keep the money.