When you buy a house, it’s pretty common to be slapped in the face (or kicked in the butt) by hidden costs. What is less common is stumbling upon a substantial stash of cash.
A dentist in Massachusetts says that when he hired a crew to do some demo work so he could do some office expansion, they stumbled upon about $2,500 in fifty and one hundred dollar bills stuffed into the wall.
“I was looking out the window in between patients and the fellow was pulling the wall apart and the next thing I knew I saw a flutter of money,” the doc tells Boston’s 7News. “It was everywhere and it wasn’t just sitting there. It was in between the plaster and the boards so they had to hand pick it which took about an hour and a half.”
The homeowner says he gave a few hundred dollars of the concealed cash to the men who found it, but when it came to determining what to do with the balance, he decided to contact the building’s former owners.
“There was no question in my mind that it wasn’t my money,” he explains.
The two sisters who had owned the house say they were surprised to hear about the demo crew’s discovery.
“We went through the house pretty good and we thought we found it all,” said one former homeowner, which seems to imply that there was once so substantial an amount of cash stowed in the walls that $2,500 could go unaccounted for without anyone busting out a sledgehammer.
On the new owner’s decision to contact them, she added, “People don’t do that anymore. It’s a rare quality.”
So we wanted to see how rare a quality it is, by asking y’all to tell us honestly what you would do if you’d been in the same situation:
Man finds $2,500 in house, returns to former owners [WHDH.com]
Thanks to Harper for the tip!
ok, I thought it funny enough to post again.
>>Remember, Mrs. Farmer. Whenever you buy a house, whatever’s in the ground belongs to you – whether it’s gold or oil… or Claude Musselman.— Funny Farm (1988)
At least it wasn’t snuff photos found in a heating vent like in Louisville a few years back. The young woman in the films was killed while the owner of the house filmed it. With no evidence of a crime, he walked, as well as did his accomplice (his girlfriend). The young woman was an “friend” of his girlfriend as I recall, and after a night of debauchery, they killed her and filmed it. After the investigations to her disapperance were closed, he sold the house and moved away. The new owners were demo’ing the house (unaware as it seems, that it was a murder house) and in the process of rebuilding the heating system, found photos and film in one of the vents.
At the time, the police thought this was just a missing person situation, later they came to realize that this was a sick and twisted pair of individuals.
Photographic evidence nailed those persons into death row cells.
If you are referring to the Tom Capano case, it didn’t quite go down like that.
He went to trial and was found not guilty. About two years after that, the new owner found photos and keepsakes in a floor heating vent that had been covered by carpet. He turned the items over to the police but double jeopardy precluded Capano being tried and convicted with this new evidence.
However, if you are not referring to the Capano case…what case is it?? I’d like to read up on it.
Isn’t this the basis of First Year Law School property classes?
That’s kind of what I was getting from yesterday’s “bird shit in my soup” post. A good theoretical discussion on contracts and civil liability.
If I was a dentist, $2500 might not mean that much to me. If I were me, I’d keep it.
If I found something valuable in, say, the old cupboard that was in my cabin, or anywhere else for that matter, it’s MINE. I bought the place and contents. That includes the sub-standard (downright incompetent!) construction in an addition that was put on 50 years ago, the asbestos-containing tile that they concealed under carpet and didn’t see fit to mention…and anything I happen to find in the house or land that has any value. I had a chance to inspect everything prior to closing, as they did to search for and remove anything of theirs that they wished to keep.
I don’t care what it is or how valuable, if they didn’t take it prior to closing, it’s not theirs anymore, either from a legal or moral standpoint, just like none of the problems are their responsibility past that point either, unless methodical and egregious fraud was involved on their part in concealing something vital.
It’s IN the walls..keep it and these days, I doubt I’d report it to the IRS!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_trove#United_States
In most cases, the finder of a treasure is entitled to keep it.
I actually did find a lot of money left by the previous owner, though in small bills scattered throughout the basement. I found it while I was cleaning out the basement, but because I bought the building with tenants living in it, the scumbag claimed it was his girlfriend’s money left (unsecured) in the basement. He was significantly full of shit (and he called the cops on me because I found this unsecured money and locked it up while figuring out what to do with it).
I eventually evicted the girlfriend and him because she didn’t really appreciate the concept of paying rent.
Keep it and put it toward the mortgage.
Come on now. He bought the house and contents. The money was part of the walls. Call it insulation if you want. Only someone—say a dentist—who already has alot of money would give it away like that.
Well, this why there is always money in the banana stand.
For everyone saying they would call the police, what exactly would you want them to do? The police arent just some magical people you call anytime you have a problem. Call the police when theres a legitimate reason…like a crime.
What puzzles me is that the money was found behind the plaster and in between boards. It sounds like they put in one location and over the years the money probably has shaken or trickled down behind the walls. Then the demo put more vibration and movement on the money moving it more.
Still what could’ve been the original hiding place. I’m thinking an upper floor floor board or floor heat register?
Thirty years ago, I found a wallet in the parking lot of a movie theater after the midnight movies. It was stuffed with $400 (a large sum for 1981), credit cards and a drivers license, so I figured somebody had just cashed their paycheck (it was Friday night) and I turned it in to the box office in case the guy came looking for it. When I was thinking clearly the next morning I realized what an idiot I was. The theater employees could have pocketed the money and told the guy someone turned it in but there was no cash in it. I should have tracked the guy down myself, but he would have been worried sick about losing a weeks pay until I found him.
As a kid in the early 70s, I was checking the coin return of a pay phone, as kids do, and noticed a cheap plastic change purse in the phone book slot. It had a few dollars in change in it and a card with a woman’s name and address on it. We called her and she came to our house to get it. She gave me $25 for being so honest.
Sure, give the money to them. But be sure to ask for a cut of the profit they probably made selling me the house. Fair is fair.
Of course I’d keep it. You purchase everything at once.
There’s always money in the Banana Stand.
None of the above? I’d've researched a bit more, since the cash could’ve predated the previous owners. I wouldn’t be above sharing some of it, but not with someone just because they had the house before me.
I would have done the same thing as if I found a busted water heater, or cracked foundations, or a leaking roof. It’s mine, and no one else’s.
I have a fair amount of debt; that $2500 would do a lot of good. But I’d still call the previous owner. You can’t trust the police to be honest about people’s property these days. Previous owner first, then newspaper ad, then police. Yes, buying the building technically means it’s my money, but since when did we become human beings who only do what they’re contractually obligated to do?
You bought it. It’s yours. Consider it a $2500 discount on the house, or money to fix all the problems the house may have (or to save for the day when the problems arise).
I can see why some people would feel guilty about it and want to give it back, but I’m not one of them.
It’s really not a large enough amount to report. I would keep it; technically it would be mine anyway–I bought the house and all of the contents.
Woo hoo! Money to repair the crappy “should’ve been up to code but wasn’t” wiring, a failing hot water heater, and maybe enough to pump out a septic tank on a house that was listed as having a sewer connection! No, I’m not bitter in the least!
Half of it goes into low load mutual funds and half into high growth potential tech stocks.
I tried to give the soiled men’s underwear I found in the attic to the former owners, but they weren’t interested.
/really did find soiled men’s underwear (gross)
//Didn’t really contact former owner…
A friend of the family bought a serious level fixer-up house (he is a repairman/contractor) from a gentleman’s estate. While we were all pitching and cleaning up the jungle-like property and cleaning out the horder-like contents of the attached garage – unused for 30+years except for storage- a box was found with $700 among the 15 year old + paperwork.
Anyone guess where money to buy beer and pizza to feed all of his friends and relatives helping in the clean-up immediately came from?
I don’t see how people are really gonna feel bad about keeping that money. If you hid money in a wall however many years ago, clearly it wasn’t something you really needed or were saving for anything important. It was extra cash stored for whatever crazy reason. If it was so insignificant that they managed to forget it was there, then I somehow don’t think it was a big loss for them.
ok, here’s a scenario where i’m wrong i guess: grandpa saves money for kids/grandkids inheritance, grandpa never tells anyone it’s there, grandpa dies unexpectedly, money is forgotten, money is found after X owners later.
ok so in a case like that, i guess it would be rather un-nice to keep it.
Either way, I’ve got bills to pay. I’d keep it.
None of the above Doctors without Borders could use that money.
The guy I bought my house from was such a jerk during the negotiations, I would have no problem keeping it.
If this happened when we bought our current home, we would have kept the money. The windows needed to be replaced, we agreed on an escrow amount, it got halved at settlement. Along with that, somehow the previous owner owed more than what she agreed to for the price. In a year, she managed to add to the ltv on the house, even with putting money down and making payments.
I think it matters about the situation.
“When you buy a house, whatever’s in the ground is yours, whether it’s gold, or oil, or Claude Musselman.”
There’s always money in the banana stand.
There was no mention of what dates were on the money was it new or old money??
It is your money. You bought the house and everything in it. Having said that though, if you really felt like it wasn’t your money, why did you think it was ok to give some of it away?