Curious Boy Finds $10,000 in Kansas City Hotel Room

[SoCalDem]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/boy-finds-10000-kansas-city-hotel-room/story?id=19298893#.UatNptjp-Vo
By ALANA ABRAMSON
June 1, 2013

A curious 10-year-old boy rummaging through the drawers of his family's Kansas City hotel room came across a stash of $10,000, and he and his father turned it over to police. It's not clear when -- or if -- they will get the money back. Tyler Schaefer, 10, and his dad Cody were staying at the Hilton Airport Hotel in Kansas City last Saturday when the boy did his usual searching through closets and drawers. "He's one of those kids that likes to look for stuff," Cody Schaefer told ABC News affiliate KMBC.

Tyler hit the jackpot when he found the cash, but didn't get to keep it for long. His father turned the money over to two policemen who were at the hotel. The police were just as shocked as the Schaefer family that such a large sum of money was lying in a hotel room. But they were also suspicious that no one has come forward to claim the money.



"Generally if someone was missing $10,000 someone would call back, but no one has called back," Capt. Tye Grant of the Kansas City Police Department told ABC News. "Wouldn't you think if you lost $10,000 you would get it back?" The manager of the Hilton Airport Hotel refused to comment. The Schaefers may eventually get the money, but it will be 19 months before they can be sure the money is theirs. Under Missouri law, the Schaefers must file an affidavit within 10 days stating where and when they found the $10,000. A judge will confirm the value of the money, and send a copy to the clerk of the county commission.

snip

Cody Schaefer does not seem bothered by the fact that he and his family may not receive the money, nor does he regret the decision to hand the money over to the police. "We didn't have the money when we got there, so it doesn't change much," Schaefer told KMBC.

[MineralMan]

1. Drug deal gone bad, or?

That's a pile, and the lack of a phone call or a return by the rightful owner is curious. I've carried that much with me when buying stock for my mineral specimen business, when I was doing that. I traveled to mineral shows to buy specimens. They're held in hotels, mostly, and $100 bills are the currency of choice. One bundle of $100s is $10,000, and a lot of larger dealers have ten of those bundles at the major mineral shows.

Still, had I left that much money in a hotel room, I'd have been back there like a shot.

[SoCalDem]

6. Whomever left it there may have been "taken care of"

when he/she turned up without the cash... I hope they get the cash & save it for his college

[MineralMan]

8. I'll bet it will be deemed to be drug cash and

not given to them. That's the normal practice by the police. It was the right thing to do to turn it in, but I doubt they'll ever get it. But, then, they didn't have it before, and they did the right thing. That's worth a lot.

[htuttle]

2. If the police decide it was drug-related, they'll probably keep it

[MrScorpio]

3. When I worked at a hotel back in VA, I once escorted the owner and his guest to one of the rooms

Basically, he just wanted to show his friend how nice his hotel rooms were. He owned several hotels and wasn't strapped for cash in any way, as he was a millionaire. The owner was good for playing himself off as a kindly old grandfatherly type, which I suspected was a load of crap… Mostly because he was pretty damn cheap, he pretty much ran his hotels through the managers with an iron fist and most of all he was very good at supporting the local Virginia GOP. Former Senator Macaca was a frequent guest and one occasion the owner even threw some kind of campaign even in the lobby of the hotel for him.

But it was that one time I took him and his guest to see one of his rooms where I found out how much of an ass he really was. Someone, never found out who, lost a grocery sack of cash in one of his hotel parking lots. Now I will credit him for turning it in to the police… But I found it quite interesting that this man, a millionaire who owns several hotels, was practically GIDDY at getting that bag of cash back from the police if no one had claimed.

As I just laid back and let him take the lead (my only role was to find a good looking empty room, take them to it and open the door), I was careful not insert myself into this conversation with the owner and his friend. After all, I was just a lowly employee.

But it was quite illuminating to hear this man, the so-called friendly grandpa, talk like an absolute greedy bastard about lost money that he even didn't need and who would most certainly keep if no one had claimed it.

It's been my observation that rich bastards think about money more than being decent people.

And I think that it's apropos that the Schaefers, who are more than likely people of modest means would not act as if they worship money, especially craving to get money that belongs to someone else.

I don't believe in the virtue of the rich and the powerful. They have nothing that they can teach me, other than whoever the rich and powerful are, there stands a very good chance that they got that way by being reprehensible assholes.

Good going, Schaefer Family. Thanks for being decent people.

[PCIntern]

4. A great film in reference to this finding of money concept

Is "Night of the Running Man"...remarkable cast and great narrative.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

31. Millions is good also.

My favorite Danny Boyle film.

[Chipper Chat]

5. I'll bet there is one pissed off maid.

Housekeepers are supposed to inspect the room top to bottom before they declare it "vacant-ready" for the next guest. She is definitely crying in her beer over her lost cash.

[siligut]

18. My mother left an envelope containing $100 in an airport hotel room

She called me when she got back home and asked that I check to see if anyone found it. I did and yes, the maid had turned it in that morning. The envelope was not sealed, I gave her $20 from it.

[reformist2]

7. I would have requested a new room, immediately!

No telling when the drug dealers would be back to get their money. :worried:

[SoCalDem]

9. Since they were at an airport hotel, they probably were not staying long anyway.

The hotel probably moved them anyway, since the police probably wanted to look for prints etc..

[Jenoch]

27. I highly doubt the cops looked for prints.

It is nearly impossible to get clean prints from a hotel room. Actually, what I mean is that there are too many varying finger prints in most hotel rooms. I'm sure they checked the hotel's computer system to see who had stayed in that room in the recent past.

[LuvNewcastle]

10. If the police keep that money, I assure you

it won't be put to any good use.

[Jenoch]

28. In my brother's department

forfeited drug money is used to buy bullet resistant vests and other equipment for their small department.

[Orrex]

11. Nice post, friendo.

[awoke_in_2003]

32. DUzy...

[kestrel91316]

12. I would have quietly kept it unless somebody

from hotel management or LE came to ask about it.

[Nye Bevan]

14. And then say the police did come to ask about it.

Would you be honest and say that you found it? Because then you're confessing that you committed a crime by not handing the money in.

Or would you lie to the police? And then find out that your son blabbed about the money to his classmates and his friends' parents also become involved in the investigation? You could easily end up serving time.

The worst case, of course, is if the drug dealers or other criminals find out who the next occupant of the room is, and where they live (easily done by bribing the low paid desk clerk).

Putting aside all moral issues, handing the cash in to the cops (and publicizing this, so everyone knows that you don't have it anymore) is by far the smartest thing to do.

[kestrel91316]

19. I might have also suddenly developed an inconvenient gastrointestinal

illness that required I return home. I'd hide the money and deny any knowledge.

Then again, maybe I wouldn't. But I'd sure think about doing that, lol.

[Pragdem]

26. That's a lot of hypotheticals. nt

[Major Nikon]

33. I'm not sure what the alleged crime would be

When the owner can't be readily identified with due diligence, the finder's claim rises above all others. If I find a $20 blowing down the sidewalk, I can pick it up and keep it legally unless I saw it blow out of someone's billfold.

[Politicalboi]

17. I would have too

But you have to set a good example for the kid. The kid found it, you can't hide it from him after that. Who knows who the kid will tell on the promise they say nothing. Or even his father may have told the wrong person. It's a shame they have to trust the police over this, the police will probably steal it. Have their K-9 unit sniff it and find some white power on it. Drug money, it's ours, or the hotel will make a claim for it.

[kestrel91316]

20. Of course the cops will keep it. It's clearly evidence of a crime.

It's no LESS moral for me to keep it, and the social good would be greater if it went to me rather than them.

[Jenoch]

29. The story did not provide enough evidence

to say for sure it was a crime. The money could certainly be legal.

[former9thward]

13. The hotel would know who is the last person to use the room.

Nowadays ID is required to rent rooms. It is unlikely that money has been sitting around for more than one day so it should be easy to ID who left it.

[SoCalDem]

15. fake ID (if it was a criminal)

[Comrade Grumpy]

21. Ah, McLovin. That was rolling-in-the-aisles funny.

[Pisces]

16. Why would they post their picture and names? If they do get the money the criminals

will know where to reclaim it!! These may be unsavory people who want their money back but can't go to the police.

[TheDebbieDee]

22. I was thinking the same thing. It's stupid and dangerous to print their real names

and show their faces on television.......

This family could be in big trouble if the wrong people come looking for that money.

[Pisces]

23. I guess people don't think like us, but you would think the cops would know better.

[Egalitarian Thug]

24. Hitting the jackpot usually entails getting the money. Anybody want to wager that the

cops will discover it is proceeds from some illegal activity and keep it?

[Pragdem]

25. I sure as hell wouldn't turn it in. nt

[ForgoTheConsequence]

30. Same here.

I would have shut the fuck up, promptly.