Best Buy Employees Find $10,000 Hidden In Computer Tower
A man in St. Louis dropped off his computer for repair at the area Best Buy, but apparently forgot that he was also using it as a bank. "Employees at a Best Buy store in South County discovered about $10,000 cash inside," writes the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
According to the article, the employees called the police, "who ran a background check on the owner and checked the serial numbers on the bills stashed inside the tower." Nothing suspicious turned up, so they returned the money.
What kind of person stashes his savings in his computer tower and then forgets about it? The same kind who takes his computer to Best Buy for repair. Hooray! We were wondering how to spin this into something snarky and we managed to do it!
Pete, who sent us the tip, notes that there's an important lesson here: "Before you take your computer in for repairs, please remove your money."
"Best Buy employees find cash inside computer" [St. Louis Post Dispatch]
(Photos: karindalziel, AMagill)
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Comments:
Good thing the employees were honest for a change.
He must be a newer employee.
i question their motives for calling the police and running the backround check. money isnt illegal, its not like he had child porn on his computer. they should respect their customer's privacy and return any misc items they find, money included.
@snazz: They probably called the police because it was a large sum of money. This way it's documented they found the money, probably falls under store policy. It wasn't the store who said "run the serial numbers!".
i'd like to add to the article - "before you take your computer in for repairs, remove your hard drives too" (assuming you don't have a software-related problem)
@snazz: I knew as soon as I read that headline that the police would be involved, there would be background checks, and the man would likely have to answer a bunch of questions in order to get his money back. Have to say I'm glad I was wrong in assuming he wouldn't have gotten it all back.
Large sums of cash in this country = guilty of some kind of crime until proven innocent.
@snazz: That assumes the computer (and the money) was his to begin with. With that amount of money, I'd rather the police make sure someone else isn't out $10,000 and a computer.
Employee: "Hey boss! I just opened this computer and found $15,000 inside!"
Boss: "You mean you found $10,000 inside."
Employee: "Riiiiiiiiight."
@AlteredBeast: i guess i can believe store policy, but that still sucks that they would report non-illegal customer items to the police. large sum aside, money isnt illegal to have. I can see it raising some concern based on preconceived notions, but there is nothing inherently wrong with having money.
@snazz: The store didn't do anything except call the cops. It's probably pretty standard to run serial numbers on randomly hidden, large sums of money.
Seems that this would be a great way to have your savings end up in flames.
They sure it was only $10k, and not like 15-20? I'd watch the geek squad and make sure their acne doesn't clear up or they get invisible braces!
With the economy in the toilet, his money was gaining more interest in his computer tower than in a bank.
@gStein: That is good advice. But anyone smart enough to do that would probably be too smart to take his PC to Best Buy.
@snazz: But they found some random, large sum of money in a really weird place. $10k in a computer isn't normal. It's not like it was some random $100 bill that accidently fell out of a pocket. It was $10k. Hidden in a very strange spot. I don't see a problem with the police making sure it wasn't illegal. Also, the guy was a fucking idiot leaving $10k in a computer that he sent out to repair.
@snazz: They weren't reporting the customer, they were covering their own butt. It's standard procedure when large amounts of money are found to have it documented as soon as possible by authorities, in case the person it belongs to claims that it was not all returned. Had to do it at the dry cleaner I worked at when a guy left a large (~$1000) amount of cash in his pocket.
@nakedscience: "...randomly hidden, large sums of money."
So, large sums of money left lying around in plain sight are less suspicious?
Stupid places to hide money or valuables:
1.) "Disguised" containers placed in locations where it's obvious they're fake (i.e., fake soup can that you keep in your sock drawer) and hence have valuables.
2.) Inside something that is also valuable and therefore likely to get stolen (like a COMPUTER)
3.) Any lockable container that is still portable, like a cash box.
I find it odd that someone would hide cash in an item in their home that's pretty likely to be stolen on its own anyway.
Actually, cash transactions of $10,000 or more must be reported to federal authorities, not the local policy. Even a $10,000 cash bank deposit gets reported.
Putting $10,000 into a store's "lost and found" could arguably be defined as a "transaction," so I see no problem with what Best Buy did.
Did they fix the damn machine, at least?
@snazz: I would guess it's some form of CYA. If it ends up being drug money, they might be liable in... some... way.... uh... IANAL, but companies get more uptight about liability by the day.
Just remember kids..its okay to keep cash in your computer but DO NOT throw spare change in there !
Someone probably told him his computer would run better if it had a lot of cache in it.
Was the money the cause of the computer not working?
This reminds me of my delay at the Vegas airport. It's pretty quite and I'm sitting in my seat when over the loudspeaker I hear, "attention, if someone lost $10,000 cash wrapped in a rubber band, please report to the security office immediately, we have your rubber band."
It was a magical sort of WTF moment.
Not gonna lie - I would've called the customer and told him, "Hey - I found something inside your computer that you might want to come pick up." and hope for some silence money. A few hundred woulda done the trick.
@nakedscience: Oh I didn't realize that hiding money in the computer makes it OK to just assume that its there for illegal reasons.
@flamincheney: Computers generally don't run hot enough to burn paper (and if they do they generally *stop* running) nor do they give off sparks. Really I'd think it'd be more hazardous to the computer than the money
@snazz: I have to wonder if they didn't call the cops to ask, "The rule is still 'finders-keepers,' right?" Heh.
On a different angle: Having just sent my son's computer in for repair (through the school, which owns it, *whew*) due to overheating, I am a little freaked out about the idea of putting (paper) money inside a computer tower. I know that towers have a lot more "breathing room" and bigger fans than most laptops, but wouldn't that still be a big fire hazard? Presumably one would put money in a hiding place like that to keep it safe, but if it catches fire...?
@Radi0logy: that is my thinking of the situation and i would be angry at BB for assuming. but i see the point that everyone else is making, and probably if it was illegal, there would be some responsibilty on BB for it.
Reminds me of the Wire, when the unit busts the main Barksdale stash house, the Dozer and Herc are in a room alone, flip over a mattress and find a bunch of cash. They both look at each other, look around, and stuff several bundles each under their vests.
@Kamidari: Given the weight to value ratio, and the nature of thefts, unless you're getting the whole house ripped off, the computer isnt as likely to get taken as one would think
@snazz: $10,000 is a lot of money, but it's not even close to high enough to believe it's been stolen. My goodness, I would be furious if I were him.
@diasdiem: @spindle789: You'd be surprised - jewelry, cash, small light items of that sort are the ones that go - a heavyish box that's going to have a fairly unknown value (good computers tend to be cheaper these days, and of course depreciate pretty quickly with age) makes it less of a tempting target
I would think if someone is comfortable enough to take off the case & "hide" things inside of the computer, they would also be the kind of person who can fix their own computer.
Also, inside a computer is a TERRIBLE hiding place, since if his house is robbed, a computer is usually one of the items that will be taken.
He was probably saving up to fill his iPod.
@coren: Could be... I don't really know, other than those guys that rob houses on that TV show (can't remember the name off-hand) seem to usually take it because it can contain all sorts of useful information for identity theft and whatnot.
And now homeland security swoops in and grills him on how he has 10k in this economy, and isn't floundering around in misery and desolation like the rest of us peons.
@3drage: Here I was theorizing that they actually found $20k and kept $10k as a silent finder's fee.
I am a little freaked out about the idea of putting (paper) money inside a computer tower.
@bibliophibian: Me too. In fact, that's the second thing I thought when reading the headline (like cmkennedy my first thought was that someone called the police).
The dumbass is strong with this one...