Lost and Found and Returned

Philippine Driver Returns Lost Money
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070702/ap_on_fe_st/odd_philippines_honest_cabbie
July 1, 2007

MANILA, Philippines - He needed the money for his sick wife and overdue rent, but honesty prevented a motorcycle taxi driver from keeping $17,000 left behind by a passenger.

Iluminado Boc returned the money to police in Tagbilaran city on central Bohol Island last week, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Monday. The woman who lost the bag of cash had just reported it to police when Boc showed up at the precinct.

"It was not mine," Boc was quoted as saying.

Boc, 45, said he was struggling financially because his wife was taken to a hospital the same day he found the money, and they had unpaid rent.

The owner rewarded him with $32 — about seven times what a motorcycle taxi driver makes a day.


Woman finds $20K in bank deposit tube
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070702/ap_on_fe_st/odd_found_cash
July 2, 2007

A woman who works as a makeup artist and deli clerk found $20,000 at a bank's drive-up depository, then calmly walked into the bank and turned over the cash. Linda Hatch said her mind raced in the seconds after she found the two $10,000 bundles in a plastic deposit tube on June 25.
"Am I in the middle of a bank robbery ... a drug bust, is someone going to pick up the money?" Hatch said. "I was like, 'Oh, my gosh. What do I do?'"
Hatch, who owns a permanent makeup business in Lake Havasu City and also works at an Albertsons grocery store, said the bank teller she approached was just as confused about what to do.
"She looked at me like, 'What is this?'" Hatch said.
Hatch said she filed a police report in the days after turning over the cash and hasn't been told by the bank whether the rightful owner has ever surfaced.
Bank employees declined to comment.
Hatch said she was "shaken for five hours" after the discovery. But she has no second thoughts about turning in the cash and laughed while recalling the scenario.
"It's not enough money to move to Mexico," she said.