Posted on 04/10/2008 12:37:40 PM PDT by Dallas
(CBS) It was a tempting sight for struggling landscaper Eli Estrada: a bag filled with $140,000 on a Cerritos street.
There was his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business.
But turning it over to Long Beach police last month was the right thing to do, he said.
The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong."
The Bank of America money bag was lost March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The unmarked $20 bills were bundled into wads of $20,000 and bound for ATMs.
Long Beach police Sgt. Dina Zapalski said Estrada handed over the money bag to an officer who took a report at one of the landscaper's job sites.
Zapalski said she had never heard of someone turning in so much cash.
"I've had people come to me with purses and wallets with cash in it and they'll turn it in," Zapalski told the Los Angeles Times. "But not like this."
Brinks later gave him a $2,000 reward.
"They should have given him 10 percent," Estrada's mother told the Times.
Yeah, should have been 10% the cheapwads. Only one in a hundred would have turned it in, make a decent example of it and maybe more will follow suit the next time it happens.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Amen
He is better Man than me. I would head to Vegas right away.
Okay, you’re a rich person looking for an honest gardener to tend the grounds of your mansion... You’d BE ABSOLUTELY NUTS not to hunt this guy down, hire him, and pay him well for the rest of your life.
I wonder how much $ bad cops keep from $ found in drug busts.
Bank of America. No bank has given out more loan to illegal aliens based on the Matricula Consular card. He should have kept the money, or donated it to I.C.E.
So is showing appreciation for such a upstanding gesture. People will see that it doesn’t pay to be upstanding when you reward someone like this, make an example so that more might follow.
Maybe he saw “No Country for Old Men.”
LOL...
Nationwide?
Has to be in the millions each year I imagine, hell Chicago alone has prosecuted entire units for doing that.
Don't know if things are any different than about 40 years ago, but ...
A good friend, no longer with us, a cop in a major city, had his wife adorned with some fine jewelry from various jewelry heists.
He confided in me ... "What the hell ... the insurance is paying it off anyway ..."
IF you're the first responder to a robbery, smash n' grab .. etc.
He's young, good looking, and honest.
Perhaps God put it there to help him out of his financial problems?
I take it that the bank knew there was $140k in the bag to start with (and not $160k, or $180k, or...)?
Are there a lot of those on FR today?
“They should have given him 10 percent,” Estrada’s mother told the Times.
Yes, they should have, but how crass of her to make that statement!
the drivers problably got fired.
They usually sign for it, so.......
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