RE: How To Get Rich From Pennies
About 10 years ago I was doing my grocery shopping in a store called Stop & Shop. I needed to use the bathroom really badly, so I found out where it was and proceeded to enter and walk up to a urinal.
I didn't notice it at first, but sitting right on top of the urinal directly underneath the metal flush handle was what looked like a $100 bill folded in half, and then half again.
I immediately thought it was one of those fake $100 bills that people use as a gag. They throw them on the floor or ground and then watch as people excitedly pick them up, only to get angry when they discover they've been had.
Still, I thought, what do I have to lose? As soon as I finished my business, I grabbed the bill and unfolded it, only to find that it was actually TWO REAL $100 BILLS! Guess who got FREE groceries for two weeks?
I guess the moral of the story is to pick up any money you see, whether it be a $100 bill or a penny, it's money that you didn't have before.
So, let me ask you all a question. How many of you would have brought the money to the customer service desk or lost & found and turned it in?
Stop & Shop was a supermarket I visited regularly as a kid, never found any money though. Heck, I don't think I have found any folding money higher than $5 before! I wouldn't have turned it in without any way to identify who lost it.
That was the most money I ever found in my entire life. Actually, that's not true. It's the most I ever found that I kept. Some years back I found a wallet on the ground right outside the door of a Blockbuster video store. I opened the wallet and there was $267 inside, mostly $20 bills. I was really excited about that until I took a look at the guy's ID and saw that he was a priest. Bummer!
It's a little different when you find just a wad of money and there is nobody around, but when you know who the money belongs to, and on top of that it's a priest, then that's where I have to draw the line. I was able to track him down and return his wallet, cash intact. He wanted to give me a $20 reward, but I told him to say a prayer for me instead and we'll call it even :)
As far as the money I found in the bathroom, I think what must have happened is the guy probably had the money in his hands and put it down to flush and he must have been in a huge hurry and just walked away and left it there.
Either that or I was part of some study where they wanted to see how many people would turn the money in and how many would pocket it. Seems like they would have used a much lower amount of money for something of that nature, though. I didn't really think about it at the time because I was actually struggling financially and I was just really grateful I found the money and there was nobody around that tried to claim it.
Other than those two instances, the most money I've ever found is a $10 bill in the parking lot of a CVS. I also found a $5 bill underneath the seat of a public bus once. I guess I've found more money than most. Once I saw a news story about a guy who left an envelope containing $6000 on the roof of his car and then drove away. A guy who was sitting in the parking lot saw the whole thing and got the guys license plate and turned the money in to the local police and they contacted the guy and gave it back to him. Now that's what I call an honest person. Can you imagine finding $6000 free and clear and returning it? Turns out it was tuition money for the guy to send his daughter to some technical school.
Heck, those are some stories. I've been on the losing side.
When I lived in Hawaii I would metal detect along Waikiki beach. One morning a guy came up to me and said that he lost his wedding ring, I ask him to show me whereabouts it dropped. spent a few hours searching and found it! I went up to his hotel room and they gave me a $100 reward. I didn't want to put it in my wet pouch, so I placed it under my baseball cap. Well, when I got back to my car I took my cap off and no $100 bill! Oh well, guess it fell out somewhere along the way.
You always hear about the stories about someone returning large sums of cash, but I imagine they are the exception - not the rule. All I know is that if I had thousands on me, then I am holding that much money tight to my body.