So Whose Money Is It??

[Amlee]

Every time this happens, I have to wonder about the guys doing the work. If they want the money, they should just keep it and be quiet about it. Why tell the owner and then go to court???

I think it belongs to the folks who own the home, though. If the workers found fleas, roaches or termites, they wouldn't claim those.

I thought the same thing when I first heard about this. If the contractor found the money and wanted it. Stuff it in your shirt, walk out to the truck, put it in your glove box and keep your mouth SHUT.

 

[Jestocost]

I thought the same thing when I first heard about this. If the contractor found the money and wanted it. Stuff it in your shirt, walk out to the truck, put it in your glove box and keep your mouth SHUT.

Except, how does the contractor know it doesn't belong to the current owners without asking them about it? If that was the case and he took it, he almost certainly would be prosecuted for theft.

 

[beattyfamily]

There was a story where this happened awhile ago and I remember the guy who found it was on the Today show. There were even photos!! Can you even imagine this happening to you??

It SO should be the homeowner's money!

LINK to story

Contractor, homeowner fight over money found in walls
Thursday, December 13, 2007
CLEVELAND (AP) — A contractor who helped discover bundles of Depression-era U.S. currency totaling $182,000 hidden behind bathroom walls said the homeowner should turn the money over to him or at least share it.

Bob Kitts said his feud with the owner of the 83-year house, a former high school classmate, has deteriorated to the point where they speak to each other only through lawyers.

Kitts said his lawyer has drafted a lawsuit that he hopes will force Amanda Reece to turn over the money she has kept.

Most of the currency, issued in 1927 and 1929, is in good condition, and some of the bills are so rare that one currency appraiser valued the treasure at up to $500,000, Kitts said.

Reece accuses Kitts of extortion.

The fight began in May 2006 when Kitts was gutting Reece's bathroom and found a box below the medicine cabinet that contained $25,200.

He called Reece, who rushed home. Together they found another steel box tied to the end of a wire nailed to a stud. Inside was more than $100,000, Kitts said. Two more boxes were filled with a mix of money and religious memorabilia.

"It was insane," Kitts said. "She was in shock — she was a wreck."

The bundles had "P. Dunne" written on them, a likely reference to Peter Dunne, a businessman who owned the home during the Depression.

Kitts said he took some of the currency for an appraisal and learned that many of the $10 bills were rare 1929-series Cleveland Federal Reserve bank notes, worth about $85 each. There also were $500 bills and one $1,000 bill.

John Chambers, an attorney for Reece, said Kitts rejected his client's offer of a 10 percent finder's fee and demanded 40 percent of the small fortune.

Reece has no intention of backing down in the face of what she considers a shakedown, Chambers said.

Kitts asserts he found lost money, and court rulings in Ohio establish that a "finders keepers" law applies if there's no reason to believe any owner will reappear to claim it.

 

[Imzadi]

I thought the same thing when I first heard about this. If the contractor found the money and wanted it. Stuff it in your shirt, walk out to the truck, put it in your glove box and keep your mouth SHUT.

This is what happened in a Diet Pepsi Contest trial I saw talked about on Oprah. These two co-workers worked in an office, different shifts, but sharing a communal refrigerator in the office kitchen.

Co-worker A always drinks Diet Pepsi. It was a well known fact in the office as she always leaves a can in the fridge. No one ever takes them as they all know it's her cans. (Nice office. )

Co-worker B doesn't drink any kind of Pepsi, also well known in the office.

Pepsi was having some promotion where you might open the can that pops up a winning tab for one million dollars, or other tabs for lesser prizes.

Co-worker A leaves her shift, not drinking her one can of Pepsi in the fridge. Has done that before. Can is always there in the morning as everyone knows it's her can.

Co-worker B comes on shift, opens the can of Pepsi, finds out the can is the $1Mill winner, and starts shouting it off to the other co-workers that she's won a million dollars.

Next day, Co-worker A comes to work, is told, "Hey did you hear, B won a million dollars last night. She opened a can of Pepsi & won." Curious, she goes to the fridge to see if she's won anything in her can and finds her can GONE!

She doesn't need Sherlock Holmes to know Co-worker B stole her can. She would never have opened it, if there wasn't a Pepsi promotion. She takes B to court.

Co-worker B claims that A left a can in the fridge, she assumed A didn't want it anymore and she took it to drink.


The courts ruled with Co-worker A - it was always her can. Well established pattern by both co-workers.

While I agree with the courts, B could have walked away with a million dollars had she just kept her mouth shut after she had won, & simply sneaked off with the can undetected.

Except, how does the contractor know it doesn't belong to the current owners without asking them about it? If that was the case and he took it, he almost certainly would be prosecuted for theft.

Well, if the floorboards were in place for quite some time and were old, creaky & dusty, & needed him to dig it up, it would be safe to assume the NEW owners didn't know about the money. Also, if you were the owners, would you just let the contractor dig up that part of the floor alone, knowing that there was money underneath, and go off & work in the next room?

 

[Imzadi]

There was a story where this happened awhile ago and I remember the guy who found it was on the Today show. There were even photos!! Can you even imagine this happening to you??

It SO should be the homeowner's money!

Ooooh! Do not show this to the OP of the Safe Watch thread.

What could have been...


I don't how a "finders keepers" law can apply on private property. So a person wanders onto someone's porch and "finds" a bicycle, and if the owner doesn't come claim it, it's yours?

This sounds like the contractor's lawyer is just trying to make money for himself by taking the other side to court, "hopefully" shaking down the homeowner for more money, like her lawyer said. Even if they do not win more than the 10% originally offered, the contractor's lawyer makes out, no matter what, by being in court. But, the contractor is then 10% minus lawyer's fees. Once you've been screwed by a lawyer in this way, you recognise the way lawyers work.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I wonder if P Dunne's heirs rightfully have any claim to the money?

 

[Imzadi]

I would think there is a statute of limitations. What about when people unearth treasure in old shipwrecks? Does the money belong to the heirs of the original owners (or country)? Or does it belong to the person that dives for it? Or does being in international waters make void original ownership.

 

[Amlee]

Except, how does the contractor know it doesn't belong to the current owners without asking them about it? If that was the case and he took it, he almost certainly would be prosecuted for theft.

If said new owner KNEW that such a large sum of money was buried there and STILL let the contractor find it. Then, said new owner is too stupid to keep the money.

 

[FayeW]

This is what happened in a Diet Pepsi Contest trial I saw talked about on Oprah. These two co-workers worked in an office, different shifts, but sharing a communal refrigerator in the office kitchen.

Co-worker A always drinks Diet Pepsi. It was a well known fact in the office as she always leaves a can in the fridge. No one ever takes them as they all know it's her cans. (Nice office. )

Co-worker B doesn't drink any kind of Pepsi, also well known in the office.

Pepsi was having some promotion where you might open the can that pops up a winning tab for one million dollars, or other tabs for lesser prizes.

Co-worker A leaves her shift, not drinking her one can of Pepsi in the fridge. Has done that before. Can is always there in the morning as everyone knows it's her can.

Co-worker B comes on shift, opens the can of Pepsi, finds out the can is the $1Mill winner, and starts shouting it off to the other co-workers that she's won a million dollars.

Next day, Co-worker A comes to work, is told, "Hey did you hear, B won a million dollars last night. She opened a can of Pepsi & won." Curious, she goes to the fridge to see if she's won anything in her can and finds her can GONE!

She doesn't need Sherlock Holmes to know Co-worker B stole her can. She would never have opened it, if there wasn't a Pepsi promotion. She takes B to court.

Co-worker B claims that A left a can in the fridge, she assumed A didn't want it anymore and she took it to drink.


The courts ruled with Co-worker A - it was always her can. Well established pattern by both co-workers.

While I agree with the courts, B could have walked away with a million dollars had she just kept her mouth shut after she had won, & simply sneaked off with the can undetected.

I hope that co-worker B also got fired from her job, for stealing from a co-worker. She had no business touching something that she knew very well wasn't hers, and then claimed it as her own because the co-worker "left it" there.

 

[SamIAm21]

Money makes people so weird! The money belongs to the owner of the home, unless they choose to give it to the previous owners out of moral obligation. They bought the house including whatever it contains, it could be money, or mold, but it belongs to whomever owns the house!

However, I must admit to being completely shocked that the guy who found Steve Fossett's belongings turned in the $1,000.00 he found. Honestly, I don't think I could have done that. I mean, he doesn't need it anymore right....??

 

[chrisw127]

I'm having a law school flashback, only this case involved a plane. It went to the new owners.

 

[eclairemom]

It belongs to the new owners, I don't know why the contractor would think that he had claim to it. The new owners should share some of the wealth with the contractor for being honest and not stealing their money. It reminds me of a story of a house torn down in the 80's that used to be the town brothel many years earlier, they had stuffed the walls with cash and when the house was torn down it was money flying all over the place.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Mental note to self: If you buy an old house, check inside the walls.

 

[ZachnElli]

We had a contractor doing some ceiling work for us and he found some old baseball cards. He showed them to my dh and then tried to keep them. My dh said, uhh no, those are mine!

 

[Camicar]

My father was a plumber and often found stuff in the walls and floors during remodels. He never once considered keeping anything, although several times the homeowner did give the item to him (glass bottles and such).