Good guy or idiot?

I'm undecided. That's a crapload of money (some estimate over $1.5 mil) in cash. At worst I think I'd call the company and say I found the bag and ask what was in it for me.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=34074248

SALT LAKE CITY — Dan Kennedy was driving to work Tuesday morning when he saw a large orange bag spill onto the roadway from a truck in front of him.

Not wanting the bag to become a traffic hazard, Kennedy pulled over on the westbound I-80 off-ramp leading to Wright Brothers Drive, near Salt Lake City International Airport, and ran to retrieve the bag.

"I thought it was going to be light. I reached down to grab it, and I couldn’t move it,” Kennedy said.

He quickly discovered that what almost literally fell into his lap was an enormous bag of cash belonging to Brink's, a company that specializes in armored cash transportation.

Kennedy was praised by the Utah Highway Patrol on Wednesday for thinking only of returning the money after making what a trooper describes as an exceptionally rare find.

"It was clear for everyone to see that it was just wads and wads of very cleanly stacked ... $50s, $100s and so on,” said trooper Brady Zaugg, who was one of the officers on scene after Kennedy called them from his workplace. "It was not a bag of nickels, that’s for sure."

It’s unclear exactly how much money was in the bag, which was about 4 feet tall, 2 feet wide and weighed 75 pounds. The bag was full to the brim with smaller, roughly “steak-size” plastic bags, and one of the individual bags looked like it had about $22,000 inside, according to Kennedy.

 

"They asked me a couple times if there was another bag, and I didn’t think there was. I didn’t see one,” Kennedy said.

maybe not so honest. . .

 

If there was another bag, and he kept it, he will NEVER be able to spend that money. They will be watching him like a hawk.

If there was not another bag, then yes, he is a good guy. Well done, sir.

 

it basically sounds like all he had to do was get rid of the bag and it would have been considered "discarded."

 

Hell, if he only kept one bag, he's a good guy

 

I guarantee you I could keep the money and no one would be the wiser. whether I'd start freaking out about it is another question all together.

 

That is the real issue. Conscience can get the better of you.

 

I'd be more worried about going to jail for not reporting it. wells fargo has insurance and will be fine.

 

I doubt I would keep it, there's no way spend it without getting in trouble. I probably would keep a few thousand though

 

keep your job, pay for everything you can in cash, deposit less than $10K a year per account. watch the real money build up in your account. the IRS ain't auditing you unless you do something really dumb so basically pay full boat on your taxes and don't risk an audit. I honestly think it wouldn't be that hard. obviously plenty of drug dealers and mafia guys seem to be able to figure it out.

 

and btw you of all people would have a GREAT business to launder cash in.

 

You know who has the other bag? The cops.

 

Sshhhhhh

 

No doubt. Always do the right thing, sleep peacefully. Temptation would be there, but I wouldn't consider keeping the money.

 

Idiot

 

Laundering cash seems ridiculously easy, doesn't it?

 

What I think he's getting at is that one might want to have immediate access to the entirety of the money rather than just opting to pay for everything in cash for the rest of life and using that money for every purchase while saving whatever legit money you make.

 

Right. I am saying I agree that there are many businesses one could set up that could easily launder money.

 

I'm not sure if I agree with that. Contractors do projects that cost a large amount of money -- more money than people can be reasonably expected to pay in cash. The fewer the transactions, the more difficult it is to cook books to account for dirty money.

I think optimum money laundering is done in a business that regularly deals with cash and does many many transactions.

Like a bar...or a strip club...or a bar at a strip club. But, honestly, money laundering is really really easy. You're overstating the amount of money made in a legit business and paying taxes on that money. The IRS ain't gonna question why the Starbucks you franchised is doing 200% better than any other Starbucks in a 20 mile radius. no no, they're going ot happily take your money. The trickier thing is keeping money under the table. But that's why there's a laundromat open this very second.*


*I'm convinced laundromats exist ONLY for this purpose. And I'm not making some terrible pun. I can't think of a business more perfectly tailored to both money laundering and tax sheltering.

 

We're totally on the same page*. Two times in two days. Boom!

*I hadn't seen your post when I wrote my last one.