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0:29

A couple years back, I was walking in a park in

0:31

Los Angeles, and right there on the

0:33

dirt pathway, I saw an envelope.

0:36

It was soiled, had footprints all over

0:38

it. Joggers, people walking their dogs had

0:40

just been cruising right by it. I

0:43

picked it up and saw that it was still sealed. The front

0:46

of the envelope was covered in these colorful

0:48

childish stickers. There was a reindeer,

0:51

two adorable dogs, a flying unicorn,

0:53

and then in big letters written in blue ink,

0:56

there was a name, Lottie.

1:02

I debated whether I should open it, but obviously

1:05

I had to. Inside

1:08

there was a note wishing Lottie a happy

1:10

17th birthday. The card was signed

1:12

by someone named Frux. And

1:15

inside that note, there was money. $100.

1:19

Just a crisp $100 bill chilling

1:21

inside this letter in a busy park in Los Angeles.

1:25

I'm not gonna lie, my first thought when I saw

1:27

the cash was pure excitement. I

1:29

immediately went over to my husband, who was sitting on

1:31

a nearby bench.

1:32

I told him, maybe we

1:34

could go to a fancy dinner tonight, or maybe

1:36

we could splurge at Costco.

1:39

But then, after just a minute of daydreaming,

1:42

it hit me. Maybe I shouldn't keep this

1:44

money at all. Had it just been some

1:46

cash that I'd stumbled across without a

1:48

sentimental note, then maybe

1:51

I could keep it. But even then,

1:53

is that the right thing to do? I

1:55

wondered, what do you do when you

1:57

find money on the ground? I'm

2:05

Reema Reis and today on the program we're

2:07

sharing a story from our friends over at Snap

2:09

Judgment about six people who

2:11

faced a similar predicament with much

2:13

higher stakes. When I first heard

2:16

their episode, it reminded me of this time

2:18

that I found a birthday card on the ground with a hundred

2:20

dollar bill in it. And so before we get to

2:22

Snap Judgment, I want to tell you what happened

2:25

to Lottie's lost birthday card.

2:34

So I quickly realized the only way

2:37

I could keep the money guilt free is

2:39

if I did everything I could to find its rightful

2:41

owner first. Plus, I was just

2:43

curious. Who's Lottie? Who's

2:45

Frux?

2:46

It felt like this would be a challenge, so I

2:48

recruited the help of one of our old show producers,

2:51

Phoebe Unterman. She was very

2:53

down when I told her about my genius idea.

2:56

Okay, so we're going to build a poster.

2:59

Yeah, I feel like we should have some hashtag

3:01

on there. And also, does this

3:04

uncomfortable already have a hotline?

3:06

We were going to hang posters in search of Lottie

3:09

throughout the park. Sure, it was an

3:11

old school idea, but we figured if she was there

3:13

for her birthday, then there's a good chance she'd

3:15

be back.

3:16

We made posters on bright colored paper

3:19

with a straightforward question.

3:21

Are you Lottie or Frux?

3:23

We found your $100 and want to return it.

3:26

We also put a hotline number for people to leave a message.

3:29

And then Phoebe and I headed to the park. First

3:32

poster with tape.

3:35

Looks great. Looks good to me. We

3:37

stapled posters onto some wooden poles, on

3:40

benches. Should we do it on the other side? Yeah,

3:42

let's do it on the other side. And some water fountains. It's

3:45

a terrible taping job. And

3:48

now suddenly, there were two delusional

3:50

optimists taping neon posters onto

3:52

public property.

3:56

And this was only the first tactic. Because

3:59

this was... Very serious, we reached out

4:01

to a former private investigator who reminded

4:04

us that we had another clue. She

4:06

turned 17 that year, so the

4:08

PI recommended we check out the county's birth

4:10

records for someone named Lottie, or

4:13

Charlotte. We did that, but

4:15

didn't have any luck. We also looked

4:17

for Lottie in a public database at the library.

4:20

Also a dead end. I started

4:22

to feel silly. I wondered why I

4:24

was doing all of this. I

4:26

think as someone who chronically forgets and loses

4:29

things,

4:29

I find it minorly tragic when

4:31

you stumble across something that's lost. You

4:34

often have to rely on pure luck or the generosity

4:36

of a stranger

4:37

for there to ever be a reunion. In this

4:41

case, I felt like I was dedicating too many

4:43

resources, too much time, to return

4:45

a hundred dollar bill.

4:52

Then one day, Phoebe called me with an update.

4:55

So it's

4:57

been a couple weeks. There's been lots

5:00

going on. Really? We got

5:02

some fun voicemails. Wait,

5:04

how many calls are we talking about?

5:06

We've gone like maybe a dozen

5:08

now. What? Yeah, lots of

5:10

different things. Cute. This one I really

5:12

love. Hi, my name is Lottie,

5:15

but I'm not sure if I am the

5:17

Lottie that you're looking for. Wait,

5:19

but it's not

5:19

actually our Lottie, I don't think she sounds a little

5:22

bit. No, it's not. I feel like she's older. Lottie

5:25

all of a sudden does seem very British. My

5:27

name is Lottie. Lottie?

5:32

We also got this one that I loved. Hey,

5:35

my name is not Lottie, but I don't think anybody

5:37

really

5:37

lost a hundred dollars at the park.

5:39

Because why the fuck would you make papers for it? Anyways,

5:42

I gotta go feed my grandma. I'll call you later.

5:44

I'm going to talk to you. Give you a piece of my mind. All right? Huh?

5:47

How you doing?

5:49

This can't be a real person. Who

5:52

is this character? Okay, then I

5:54

got this voice from yesterday. Okay.

5:57

Oh my God, my name is Lottie.

6:00

And my best friend is Francesca, but we call

6:02

her Froupe. What? So that is my $100. I

6:05

cannot believe how much effort you

6:07

put into

6:08

the posters and the line and

6:10

everything. Oh. So however

6:12

I can get that back. Yeah.

6:15

Thank you so much. Have a good day. What?

6:20

Wait. We

6:22

actually found... I feel like

6:25

my face is red right now. I'm like so

6:27

flushed. I'm so overwhelmed. I

6:30

weirdly like have... I have like

6:32

vaguely have tears of mine. I know.

6:34

I feel like crying.

6:43

This may or may not have been the

6:45

biggest accomplishment of my life.

6:54

The next day I ended up calling Lottie and explaining

6:56

everything about how I was also documenting

6:58

this for the podcast. And her excitement

7:01

somehow topped mine.

7:03

Shut the fuck up, dude.

7:06

No, you didn't. Oh my god.

7:08

This is so exciting. I'm

7:10

literally, I'm like a senior in high school. Like

7:12

I... This is like,

7:15

like incredible excitement for me.

7:18

We talked for a while. Lottie told

7:20

me that her best friend, Froupe's, wrote

7:22

her that letter. They've been tight ever since

7:25

middle school. Now that we were in

7:27

touch, of course, the next step was to

7:29

hand deliver the note. We decided

7:31

to meet up at the park, at the exact spot where

7:33

I'd found the letter. We're here. Hi.

7:35

Hi. This is probably weird for you because

7:38

you like know us, like weirdly. Lottie

7:41

showed up with her best friend, Froupe's. She

7:44

kind of looked how I imagined. Like an

7:46

effortlessly cool

7:47

LA teenager with long dyed

7:49

blonde hair, an oversized black shirt,

7:51

and bright pink shoes. They

7:54

told me that they were here at the park for Lottie's birthday

7:56

with a small group of friends. I

7:58

pointed to where exactly I'd found the letter. letter. That's

8:01

actually so weird because we always

8:03

like stay on this corner and you have like

8:05

TMI but we have like a peabush over there so

8:07

we're thinking possibly it could have landed

8:10

in the peabush. Wait a peabush?

8:13

Yeah so we you know there's no bathroom

8:15

here so we've got a we stay here for

8:17

a while. Where all those trees are you can kind

8:19

of walk in the back. We make missions over there

8:21

for sure.

8:23

They apparently were there for hours that day

8:25

celebrating Lottie's birthday hence the

8:27

need for a peabush. Lottie

8:29

noticed that she'd forgotten the card when she was home

8:31

later that night. She felt really bad

8:33

about it especially when she learned that there

8:36

was also money inside that frux had saved

8:38

up from babysitting. I pulled

8:40

out the envelope which had been in my possession at that point

8:43

for about six months. There was

8:45

still dirt all over it. I then

8:47

handed it to Lottie. Oh my

8:50

gosh wait it was it's really

8:52

been through it. Yeah oh my gosh.

8:55

Can I open it now? Yeah I want to read it.

8:58

Marce did you never get to read it? No. Wait

9:00

seriously? Oh my god. Happy birthday

9:02

sweet Luda mine. You are genuinely so MF

9:04

caring and I'm so grateful to have you in my life.

9:07

You are always someone I can go to to talk about my shit

9:09

when it which is such a special trait of yours. You're

9:11

one of the funniest people I know like effortlessly

9:14

fucking hilarious and I'm not just saying

9:16

that. I hope you know you were loved and white out

9:18

awesome

9:18

you truly are. Make 17 your

9:21

bitch. Love you forever. Oh

9:23

my god I'm gonna hang this up on my wall.

9:25

I love it now it has history. Seriously and

9:27

it has so much meaning to

9:29

it now. This is like double the meaning. Well

9:32

now I have to ask are you making 17 your

9:34

bitch? No to be honest. I

9:36

like because like okay

9:39

yes but like it's just like um

9:42

I feel like quarantine sort of like changed

9:45

like I mean duh but like before I've

9:47

always sort of thinking about life before I need

9:50

to move on because like I've always wanted

9:52

to be 17 like 17 when I was a kid I was like

9:55

oh 17's like the age like oh

9:57

my god that's like being a teenager and like I

9:59

thought it was

9:59

cool. But I'm liking being 17

10:02

for sure. So what do you think you're gonna

10:04

do with the $100? I

10:07

don't know. I think I might spend it, I have to

10:09

redo my roots desperately as you can probably see. I

10:11

think I might spend it on my hair stuff because I really

10:14

need to redo my hair. I might buy

10:16

some clothes even though I really need to stop

10:18

with that. I'm probably gonna

10:20

spend it really fast.

10:22

Lottie was happy to get the cash but

10:25

she wasn't so interested in talking about that. She

10:27

seemed to care more about the card in this serendipitous

10:30

event. The fact that she and her friend Frux

10:32

now had this weird shared

10:34

story. So y'all graduate

10:36

in May. How are y'all feeling about graduating?

10:39

Terrified. I'm trying to go

10:42

to the UK, New Oregon

10:44

right? Yeah. Yeah or Washington. That's what we're thinking right now.

10:46

Yeah so it's kind of scary. It's like we're really gonna

10:48

be

10:49

far apart. Yeah it's like

10:52

hard to imagine making friends like with

10:54

the same level of connection. I

10:56

fear that no friends are gonna amount

10:58

to what we have now but at the same time

11:00

it's like new beginnings. I'm so excited

11:03

to see where you go and what you do. Obviously

11:05

we'll stay in touch and everything. Yeah no we're definitely gonna

11:07

stay. You're an adult friend to me. Yeah.

11:10

We're like wine sipping. Yeah

11:12

housewives. Yeah that's the vibe.

11:22

It's been almost two years now since

11:24

I talked with them in the park. Today

11:26

Lottie goes to college in England and Francesca

11:28

goes to school in Oregon. They tell

11:30

me they still talk

11:31

all the time. That even with the distance

11:33

they consider each other

11:34

best friends. I

11:41

still find it pretty wild that I was able

11:43

to return her gift. Also what

11:46

are the odds that I'd stumble across this money?

11:48

I think when you find something valuable that's not

11:51

yours it can feel very strange.

11:53

Like you're excited but also confused.

11:56

Like what is the catch here? This

11:58

story you're about to hear from

11:59

snap judgment made me think surely

12:02

someone is going to jump out and say, gotcha, because

12:04

what happens is pretty unbelievable. I

12:07

hope you all enjoy it. And in the meantime, we'll be back

12:09

with a new episode of This is Uncomfortable next

12:11

week. All right. Here's the host of

12:13

snap judgment, Glenn Washington.

12:21

Now, snaps, today we bring

12:23

you something a little bit different. Six

12:26

people each in a different time and place.

12:29

But they all find themselves in the same

12:31

predicament, asking the very same

12:33

question. Super

12:36

snapper Shannon Casey leads

12:38

us through a story that these good people never

12:40

saw coming.

12:44

Put it like this. If

12:47

the sky start dropping money out,

12:49

the whole world will go crazy.

12:54

July 2019, Tuesday, Atlanta, Georgia. Interstate 285

13:00

westbound, the veteran. My

13:03

name is Philip Dean. I'm 25 years old. Being

13:06

down in Atlanta, I didn't really have an income and

13:08

it was kind of that gap between the GI Bill

13:11

for college and kind of my active duty

13:13

paycheck. So I decided to drive

13:15

for Uber. So

13:18

that day got on the road, I was

13:20

driving for four or five

13:22

hours. I came over this

13:25

hill and then I saw

13:27

about 40 or 45 cars pulled

13:29

over on the side of the road and people

13:31

out of their cars. Is there cops?

13:34

Is there an ambulance? Is something on fire?

13:36

What's going on?

13:38

I need to pull over. I need to help. I

13:41

got out, walked around and kind of surveyed

13:43

what was going on. And then I kind of looked

13:45

at people taking steps around and picking

13:47

up things off the ground. I'm like, they're picking up money.

13:50

Didn't believe

13:52

there was money on the ground until I saw a lot of money on the

13:54

ground. There was a

13:56

pile of money on the ground, a pile of leaves.

13:59

I looked at a couple people and kind of was like, what

14:02

just happened?

14:06

August 2003, also

14:08

a Tuesday, Interstate 80 eastbound

14:12

in the middle of nowhere, Iowa. The

14:14

lucky guy. I am that one. I've

14:17

walked in the gas stations and found $400 on the ground. I've

14:20

been in casinos and found $500,000, $10,000 trips. Yeah,

14:24

I was driving down the highway and out

14:27

of pretty much nowhere, it started

14:29

raining cash. Kind

14:32

of started like a snow storm with one or two at

14:34

a time. Next thing you know, it's just hitting

14:36

you and like dumping on you. I

14:39

can't see. Because the

14:41

windshield of the car was covered. The

14:43

freeway came to a complete and abrupt stop. There

14:48

was no way to tell where it came from. We

14:50

were miles from an exit. Just

14:53

farm fields on both sides. No

14:55

buildings, no towns, nothing.

14:59

Money blowing in the breeze and falling from

15:01

the sky and getting stuck on people's tires

15:03

and stuck under people's windshield wipers,

15:06

stuck in the little crevices of their body work

15:08

on their cars. Like

15:11

I've been sitting there observing this, trying to process,

15:13

okay, how

15:14

did this happen? December 2018,

15:21

a Thursday,

15:24

East Rutherford, New Jersey, Route 3,

15:27

westbound. The bystander.

15:30

I was commuting. So

15:32

I am stopped high up

15:34

in a New Jersey transit bus with,

15:37

you know, the cushion seats and the big windows.

15:40

And suddenly everybody on

15:42

the bus started to kind

15:45

of look to the left-hand side of our

15:47

bus and started yelling. Wow.

15:51

I thought immediately, oh my, there's some terrible

15:53

accident. There's a brick truck over there,

15:55

like a... And I looked over and what

15:57

I saw was... The brick truck!

15:59

The money fell out. A Brinks truck

16:02

stopped and a gentleman in a

16:04

uniform, an African-American gentleman, who was

16:06

both kind of crying and laughing at the

16:08

same time, and there are cars whirring

16:10

by. I

16:11

gave the trouble to do what the door was like. He's

16:14

collecting things off the highway. Look at

16:16

this. Look at homeboy right here. Stack

16:18

of money in his hand. And a

16:20

lot of people were yelling things like, ooh,

16:23

he's gonna lose his job. Yeah.

16:29

October, 1999. Another

16:32

Thursday. A farm near

16:35

Brownsville, Oregon. The lady

16:37

with the horse pasture.

16:38

I was grooming at the time. The

16:41

horses alerted me to it because

16:43

of the crash. I mean,

16:46

they hear something, they see something, they smell

16:49

something, and their whole posture changes.

16:53

I came out here and the guard,

16:57

I guess you'd call him, only one was outside.

17:00

He had this big rifle slug

17:03

over his back, a

17:05

strap, you know? And he was

17:07

very military.

17:08

Yes, ma'am, no, ma'am. And

17:11

he didn't want me out here. And I had a bucket,

17:15

and I was trying to pick up broken glass. This

17:18

is a horse pasture. And we don't

17:20

want glass in our horse pasture. We don't want the

17:22

horses eating it. We don't want the horses stepping on

17:24

it. I was not trying to get any money. I

17:27

didn't have any money in my bucket. There

17:30

were no dollar bills.

17:33

I don't think they were heavy enough to fly out. But

17:36

the sacks of coins did

17:38

fly out.

17:38

And they broke nickels and

17:40

dimes and pennies, you know, and

17:43

stuff like that. I was upset.

17:45

You don't have a money truck crashing your

17:48

field very often.

17:51

May 1999, a Monday, I-95 Southbound outside

17:57

New York City.

17:59

I never thought it would be a dream job, but it ended

18:02

up being a dream job. Do whatever thing

18:04

that you can work in an armored car and carry millions of

18:06

dollars around and have a gun. The

18:09

armored car guy. I'm the guy. My

18:12

name is Troy Stokes. I was working for an armored

18:14

car service and I was driving money.

18:18

Yeah, it was the Port Authority money. It was the Turnpike,

18:20

the Parkway money. It was all A

18:22

money.

18:24

The traffic was flowing excellent that day.

18:26

It was no accidents. Everybody was just moving.

18:29

As we get on the Turnpike at 13A, we driving. A

18:33

lady in a white Volvo came on the

18:35

side of me and I'm seeing

18:37

in the mirror, I seen a car with high

18:39

beams, like keep hitting the high beams like a police.

18:44

It was blowing a horn at me and

18:46

she literally cut me off. So I got out the truck

18:49

and I'm like, what's your problem? What are you doing?

18:52

And she said, I was trying to tell you, your

18:54

back of your door opened up and the bag

18:56

fell out. And the car ran over the bag.

18:58

And money's everywhere.

19:04

January 1997, a Wednesday, Miami, Florida, interstate 395,

19:10

the cop.

19:14

So I'm Delrish Moss, formerly with the

19:17

Ferguson Police Department as police chief. And

19:19

before that, I was a major with the city of Miami Police

19:21

Department. I was in my office when

19:23

we got in word that a Brinks truck

19:27

had somehow turned over and

19:29

that money was spilling down off the expressway.

19:32

This had happened right in the center of Overtown. Overtown

19:35

for Miami is probably the most

19:38

economically challenged neighborhood that there

19:40

is. It's an impoverished

19:42

neighborhood and suddenly money is

19:44

raining down from heaven. When I first

19:46

got the

19:47

call, I thought, man, this can't be happening.

19:53

But it happens all the time. What

19:55

would you do if you saw money spilling

19:57

from an armored truck? All over the world.

19:59

hundreds and hundreds of accidents, top

20:02

heavy trucks, doors bursting open, cash

20:04

flying through

20:10

the

20:17

sky.

20:24

In each of these events, in

20:27

each of these places, each

20:29

person has stepped into a whole

20:31

new world of possibilities. In

20:34

New Jersey, the bystander

20:36

watches in shock.

20:40

Others on the bus pull out their cell phones

20:42

and start taking video.

20:47

It was like I was in an aquarium and you know

20:49

you see like the polar bear come

20:53

by or the big shark and

20:55

it's all playing out in front of you and you can't

20:57

touch it. I

21:00

felt kind of the joy of

21:03

the people who were stopped in their cars, many

21:06

of them obviously working people

21:08

who were going off to their jobs who

21:10

were like having you know

21:13

early Christmas. It was a highway

21:15

to money heaven. Route 3

21:17

West right in front of MetLife Stadium.

21:20

People were stopping short, pulling over,

21:22

even jumping over dividers just

21:24

to catch some green. Betsy

21:26

Richards watched it from the window of her bus.

21:29

There were a hundred dollar bills, five dollar

21:31

bills. People seem to be very interested in

21:33

you know whose money this was. Whether

21:37

people were taking the money or giving the money

21:39

back. The money technically

21:41

belongs to Brinks, police officers

21:44

say, and it's illegal for drivers

21:46

to keep it.

21:48

In Miami, the cop heads to

21:51

the scene. Money

21:54

was actually spilling down off the expressway,

21:56

down into the neighborhood and people

21:58

were actually out grabbing it. it up. This

22:01

was the very

22:01

same expressway that had destroyed

22:03

the community.

22:05

We were severely outnumbered and

22:07

we saw people starting to run off

22:10

in different directions with fistfuls

22:12

and pocketfuls running from the police

22:14

because they were afraid that they'd have

22:16

to return the money or they were going to be arrested. It

22:19

was kind of funny, I mean, you know, just

22:21

to see people running from all over the

22:23

place had a sort of comical

22:26

ring to it. The cop

22:28

hits the streets of Overtown looking

22:30

for information about the missing money. As

22:33

we were going around door to door asking people

22:35

to give the money back to turn it in, we

22:37

also knew that in those homes people

22:39

were struggling with the dilemma of now

22:42

I've got a way to make ends meet.

22:45

Yeah, I lived in Overtown

22:47

as a kid. As a matter of fact, most of my

22:49

high school years were in Overtown.

22:53

I knew these people. And so

22:55

when they're telling me something that's not true, I

22:58

know they're telling me something that's not true. You

23:00

see the looks on faces. You

23:02

see that that that's smart. You see these

23:04

things that are telltale signs that what

23:07

they're about to tell you is not going to be the truth.

23:09

And they know that you know it's not.

23:12

Most of the residents we talked to said the money

23:14

that fell from this bridge was good

23:17

for the neighborhood. Half a million dollars

23:19

plus 300,000 in food stamps

23:22

vanishes in Overtown. If somebody did

23:24

find money, do you actually think they're going

23:26

to return it? That money is going

23:29

to good use.

23:31

In Atlanta, the vet surveys

23:33

the scene. Should I stop? Should I not stop?

23:36

Yeah, of course I'm going to stop. It looks fun.

23:38

I mean, it's money on the side of the road. Why not? Picked

23:42

up some ones. I think I picked up a five. I stuffed

23:45

money into my pockets and I didn't

23:48

have any organization to it. I just kind of picked

23:50

it up, threw it in my pocket and just kept

23:52

on going. My first instinct was that

23:54

people were going to be finding each other and someone

23:57

might pull a weapon. Someone might

23:59

hit someone. start a fight, start a

24:01

mob, something of the sort. Me

24:04

and this other gentleman, I mean,

24:06

we're almost going side by side, picking up

24:09

the same, our separate

24:11

lines, and then there's one at the end.

24:13

It's a five. And we kind

24:15

of both paused and kind of looked at each

24:17

other like, who's going to grab it first? And

24:20

then it's like, go ahead, go ahead.

24:22

You can get that. You can get that. And

24:24

I'm like, well, thank you.

24:27

I remember one person kind of

24:29

walked down the hill about 20 feet toward me. They

24:32

shouted over and said, the higher bills are up

24:34

there. That's where the big pile is. The higher bills

24:36

are up there.

24:37

Some people were on the phone saying, oh, you

24:39

need to get out here. This is what's going on. This is

24:42

amazing. I didn't know if anyone

24:45

called the police. I figured someone had.

24:48

Check

24:52

on 911. We'll see you at the emergency. On 285

24:55

West, there's money

24:57

all over the road. There's people stopping it

24:59

picking it up. There's

25:03

money everywhere. People are just grabbing

25:05

it. If you go out starting, you can have it pull over

25:07

to get it. I don't know what the nominees

25:09

and the bills are. It's money. It's

25:12

safer money. Money all over

25:14

the fountain ways, believe it or not. I

25:16

mean, people are out of their cars running

25:18

back and forth across five lanes of traffic.

25:21

Oh

25:21

my goodness.

25:25

I remember at one point a woman walking out

25:27

to the third lane, almost to the fourth lane to

25:29

pick up money. This is just

25:31

getting insane. This is a lot of people. This

25:34

is still a highway. I didn't

25:36

really want to see someone get hit by a car. I didn't

25:39

want to see a car wreck or get

25:41

hit. I don't want to

25:43

be around this if it goes bad. That's

25:46

why I decided to kind of get back in the car. You

25:48

know, I'm just going to take what

25:50

I have and leave. In

25:53

total, $175,000 was spilled in

25:55

Atlanta.

25:59

Wow, that was a lot of money. After

26:04

the vet takes off, police officers

26:06

show up. They record on their

26:08

body cams, and they clean up what's left

26:11

of the cash on I-285, catching

26:14

bills as they drift past on

26:16

debris. I was walking, and $50 flew up.

26:18

Flew up out of nowhere. I came

26:20

to it. Really? Yeah. $50 bill. Ain't

26:23

it? Nope. Yeah.

26:30

Back behind the wheel of his Toyota RAV4,

26:33

the vet speeds away from the scene

26:35

with the money.

26:37

Probably about 30 seconds down the road, I called

26:39

the parents. You will not believe what just

26:41

happened. And

26:44

once I got back to my parents' apartment, I kind of sat

26:46

in my car for a minute and found everything

26:48

in my pockets and started counting

26:50

it and went, wow.

26:53

I folded it up in half and then

26:55

put it in my wallet separately. Then the $2

26:58

or $3 I had in my wallet initially, and I

27:00

just kept it separate.

27:03

I believe it was the next day, the Fulton

27:05

County Police Department kind of put in their social

27:08

media that, you

27:09

know, it's not your money. It needs

27:11

to be returned if you have it. I remember

27:14

almost verbatim, it was anything under $1,000

27:17

is a misdemeanor. Anything

27:19

over is a felony.

27:22

I

27:22

mean, I really just talked to my parents about

27:25

it, kind of, why should I keep this? Why

27:27

should I give this back sort of thing? And

27:29

the Air Force has three core values. It's

27:32

integrity first, serves for self, and

27:34

excellence in all we do. And it really tested

27:36

my integrity. I think

27:38

it was 5 or 6 o'clock at night, and

27:41

I made the decision of I'm

27:43

going to take it back because that

27:45

was not my money.

27:49

My dad chose

27:50

to come with me, so we rode

27:52

there, and it was kind of just one of those, you

27:54

know, what do you think they're going to do? What do you think they're going to ask

27:57

me? I don't know if he's going

27:59

to, you know.

27:59

take me in custody for a little bit as we fill

28:02

out paperwork. In that situation, your

28:04

mind kind of jumps a little bit.

28:24

Snappers, in just a moment,

28:27

the vet finds out that he is not the only

28:29

one with a guilty conscience. When

28:31

the money truck episode continues, stay

28:35

tuned.

28:40

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28:43

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29:23

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29:25

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29:28

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30:20

Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the money

30:23

truck episode. When last we

30:25

left, the vet was on his way to the

30:27

police station, ready to return the cash

30:29

he picked up from Interstate 285.

30:33

Snap Judgment. When the

30:35

vet and his dad get to the police station,

30:39

the police officer comes out of the evidence

30:41

room and greets them. He's recording

30:43

on his body cam. He's like, you're

30:46

returning money to you? Yes,

30:48

sir, I am. I've been doing this all day. He

30:51

apparently just got done with someone else and he

30:53

wasn't upset.

30:54

At

30:56

one point he asked me, well, how much are you

30:59

returning? I

31:01

think it was 13 ones and a five.

31:03

He

31:07

kind of just blinked at me for a second, like $18. All

31:09

right, so fill out your number. That's saying that I collected $18 from you. Just

31:11

flip it over and that's all of my information. The

31:17

vet is one of nine people who turns in

31:19

money. From what becomes known in Atlanta

31:22

as the perimeter payday. One

31:25

person turns in $2094. Another

31:29

turns in $520. Another

31:32

returns $24. $18 is the least that was turned

31:35

in.

31:37

So that was myself.

31:40

My dad kind of joked about it. He's like, you know, all

31:43

this money that fell on the ground, he picked up $18 and like, that's

31:46

all it was, was $18. If

31:49

I found $40,000 in the ground,

31:51

it might've been a different conversation.

31:55

I kind of kicked

31:58

myself in the back a little bit on that one. I kind

32:00

of thought about more, I'm like, why did I not stay longer and

32:02

why did I not keep it? That

32:04

night for me, for Uber was

32:06

not as good. I think it was only like $20 with

32:08

Uber Eats that

32:11

night. And then I picked up $18. So I

32:13

was double what I did.

32:16

On the way home, I think I passed the gas station and

32:18

went, man, it'd be nice to fill up my

32:21

tank real quick with $18. But I

32:23

decided not to.

32:26

When I-95 outside New York,

32:29

the armored car guy looks over at his partner.

32:32

He's freaking out. He's like, Stokes, we're going to lose our

32:34

job. We're done. We're done. So I had to

32:36

smack him, get him back in control

32:38

and focus. I said, listen,

32:40

go up there,

32:42

grab the money. Okay. Calm

32:44

down. I'll stay with the truck. We both

32:47

can't leave the truck. If we leave the truck,

32:49

somebody could take the whole truck. He

32:51

said, there's people everywhere. I said, you have a firearm,

32:53

put it in the air and fire. It works in New

32:55

York like that. They disperse. Trust me,

32:58

it will work. It was mayhem.

33:00

It was like people running, literally almost

33:03

getting hit by other cars just to grab some

33:05

money. It was crazy. Track the trailer, stopping.

33:08

Everybody's stopping. I mean, and then after they

33:10

picked up the money, they rolled by and saying thank you

33:12

to me. Thank you, sir. Thank

33:14

you, armored car guys. Thank you. No, everybody

33:16

was thanking me that went by. Thank you. They

33:18

was blowing a horn, thumbs up. People

33:21

had banners out their cars. Thank you. God

33:23

bless you. I

33:25

just had to laugh about it. I mean, what else am

33:27

I gonna do? The money's insured.

33:30

That's why it's called insurance. I

33:32

just, how you say, I just enjoyed

33:34

the moment.

33:38

It was so crazy because Cudi Chung called me out

33:40

of nowhere. I don't know how she got my cell number.

33:42

Don't ask me. I don't know how. And I picked

33:44

up the phone. I said, hello. She said, hi, this is Cudi

33:46

Chung from channel seven news. I'm like, are you for

33:48

real?

33:49

Who am I speaking to? I said, you speaking to

33:51

armored car guys stokes. Why? She's

33:54

like, are you the one with the money that fell out the back

33:56

of the truck? I said, yeah, you're talking to him.

33:58

And she was like, we'll be right there.

34:00

Don't go nowhere. I said, are you serious? Before

34:03

she said right there, somebody was setting up a

34:06

tripod up that ready to like start

34:08

filming right then and there. And then

34:10

my CEO guy, Rodriguez, calls us and said, get

34:12

in the truck now and get out of there. Get out of there.

34:15

In

34:17

Oregon, the lady with the horse

34:19

pasture is told by the guard standing

34:22

next to the truck that crashed into her field that

34:25

she isn't allowed to take any pictures. I'd

34:27

never had a guard standing there with a rifle

34:29

slung over his shoulder and acting like it

34:31

was, you know, some sort of top secret thing.

34:34

I kind of thought that was a little overblown, the

34:36

top secret thing. So I went

34:39

up to the corral and I took pictures. You

34:42

know, it's my property. It's

34:44

my damn property and I'll do what I want.

34:47

That's what I thought, you know. He's

34:51

invading my property. I am not

34:53

invading his property. And

34:55

of course, immediately there was people spectators

34:59

and newsmen and stuff like that. They

35:02

called in a crew that stayed

35:04

here until dark or dusk gleaning

35:07

the field

35:08

and picking up all the money. And then

35:11

when they left, they said, anything you find out here is yours.

35:15

The next day her friend comes by with the

35:17

metal detector. They don't find

35:19

much. I mean, minimal amount

35:21

of money. It was pennies and nickels and

35:23

dimes. You know, I mean,

35:26

they got all the quarters, I think.

35:30

In the middle of nowhere, Iowa, cash

35:34

keeps falling from the sky. The

35:37

lucky guy sits in his car. I

35:39

was more confused than anything else. When

35:41

I first tried to open my door, somebody

35:43

was running by and hit it and

35:46

kind of closed it back on me. That's how

35:48

many people were out running around.

35:50

So it was kind of like a herd

35:53

mentality panic. Everybody

35:55

around us was picking up whatever they could and throwing

35:57

it in their cars. I just ended up taking

35:59

a couple of hands.

35:59

that were on the windshield and

36:02

throwing them into the car. The

36:04

lucky guy gathers the bills, stuffs

36:07

them into a flexible lunchbox cooler.

36:10

He hands down the highway, the

36:12

cash in his backseat. At best,

36:14

maybe it was several thousand dollars. I don't

36:16

know, but it wasn't enough to excite me. It

36:18

wasn't enough to, you

36:20

know, oh, I'm set for life.

36:26

We were going to continue to the next town and just turn it

36:28

in. We were stopped before we got there. There's

36:32

a police checkpoint. Two

36:34

officers step out of a squad car.

36:39

They asked if we'd driven through it and we said yes. And they asked

36:41

if we'd pick something up and we said yes. And then

36:43

they asked, can you guys follow us to fill out

36:45

paperwork? And we said, okay.

36:48

And then it was getting to the police station that they informed

36:50

us that we were being detained. Detained.

36:54

The lucky guy is charged with theft. That

36:58

much money on the side of the road,

36:58

there's going to be somebody looking for it. I

37:01

was concerned I was going to miss my

37:03

upcoming work. I was concerned that this was going to

37:05

take a financial bite out of my

37:07

ass. I was shocked. He's

37:10

led through the police station, past cops

37:12

sifting through piles of money. Tables

37:16

and tables full of cash spread out. They

37:18

took whatever we had and they

37:21

were all like, you know, $20 bills. I never got an

37:23

official count. Honestly,

37:25

I do know that the person that was arrested after

37:28

me,

37:28

he had, I think, like over 20

37:32

grand on him. After

37:34

getting his mug shot, the lucky

37:36

guy is shut inside a closet

37:38

full of bookshelves and discarded furniture.

37:41

That's how small of a town it was. You

37:44

know, if I was like the A-Team, I probably could have built

37:46

something to get out of there. I had really done nothing

37:48

wrong other than picked up something

37:50

I found on the ground in the middle of the highway. That

37:53

night he makes bail and calls a lawyer

37:55

who gets his charges reduced to $20. to

38:00

a misdemeanor. When I walked out

38:02

of the booking facility, I got back in my car

38:04

and it continued down the road for at least 100 miles or so.

38:09

I might have left the state that night. I was

38:11

like, what the fuck was that about?

38:14

Like seriously, what

38:16

the hell was that about?

38:20

The armored car guy is taken

38:22

to the state police barracks. It's

38:25

one o'clock in the morning. I

38:27

was there for about three hours. They

38:30

interrogated me to find out what

38:32

led up to the money falling out the back of

38:34

the truck, just write down everything, what happened,

38:38

you know, throughout the whole day to lead

38:40

up to this. And that was it.

38:43

Then they let us go.

38:45

Actually, I thought that all of this could be

38:47

a big misunderstanding. It was a freak accident.

38:50

And then I just go back to work like regular.

38:53

That's the thing I'm thinking in my mind. The truck

38:55

probably was bad or whatever like that. I

38:57

would never know it fell down if the lady never

38:59

pulled me over. I'd have got all the way back to Trent

39:02

and never knew nothing about it. If

39:04

a door or jars, a jar means when

39:06

it opens, when it opens,

39:08

the alarm goes off. And it's a red light in

39:10

the front of the driver's side. It's

39:13

a big, bright red light that just, and,

39:15

and, like that to let you know a door opened. That

39:18

didn't work. No light, no

39:20

alarm, no nothing.

39:23

The armored car guy doesn't go back to work

39:25

the next day or the day after

39:27

that. They suspended

39:29

me and the other guy for like a few days.

39:32

And today said they got to sort it out. So

39:34

when a few days came, the manager called

39:36

me.

39:38

He said, Stokes, you got to come in, bring your badge, your

39:40

firearm. They letting you go. I

39:43

said, let me go for what? I didn't do nothing wrong. It

39:46

could have happened to anybody. What

39:48

happened was it was a state trooper in

39:50

an unmarked car when the bag fell

39:52

out the back of the truck. He saw the bag fell out

39:54

the back of the truck and a car ran over the bag.

39:57

And that's when he started writing everybody's plate number

39:59

down.

40:01

Yeah, 80,000 was in the bag and

40:03

all recovered, except for $46. So

40:06

long story short, I lost my job

40:08

for $46.

40:11

So

40:12

when I got there to return my stuff, my

40:14

badge, I felt like a police officer that's

40:17

just lost his job for no reason. My

40:19

partner, I looked at him and I felt bad and I even

40:21

tried to stick up for him. I said, listen, let

40:23

him at least keep his job because I asked him to come

40:25

with me. He was going home that day. He

40:28

said, Stokes, it doesn't work like that. He

40:30

was with you, your both is fine. At

40:33

the armored car places, I was flagged.

40:36

Everywhere they had an article with me with

40:38

my pitch on the wall, don't hire this

40:40

guy. It messed my credit

40:42

up. I couldn't get nothing. I

40:45

lost my house in Trenton, I had a nice three-bedroom

40:47

house, fenced in yard, everything.

40:50

I was depressed. I

40:54

was there for five years. I

40:56

wanted to retire with them. I wanted to

40:58

get the gold watch with the armored truck in it. A

41:01

nice plaque of show

41:03

my appreciation that I was there for 20 years.

41:06

The armored

41:09

car guy still remembers the most

41:11

money he ever hauled. The most

41:13

money was a hundred million and

41:15

they had to burn it. You throw all

41:18

the money in this oven thing

41:20

and it just burned up millions and millions

41:23

and millions of dollars. That's not

41:25

circulating no more.

41:27

You gotta remember, the United States makes the money. We

41:30

make money every day. We print money every day. We

41:33

burn money every day.

41:37

When you're sitting at home trying

41:39

to figure out how you're gonna pay a bill, you

41:42

just have this fantasy that

41:44

you're gonna win the lottery or that somehow

41:47

the Brinks truck is gonna open and money is gonna

41:49

fly through the air and you're gonna scoop some up.

41:52

And it just fulfilled all

41:54

of that longing.

41:56

Having enough money is not just working

41:58

hard. It's also... luck. If

42:02

I was on the other shoe and I was driving on

42:04

the turnpike and I seen an armored car

42:06

drop money out the back of the truck. If

42:08

you find a wall in the ground and it has

42:10

a thousand dollars in it.

42:12

If I'm out there in the middle of my hay

42:14

field and I find a sack of money that actually

42:16

fell from the sky from an airplane.

42:18

Do you take the money or do you find

42:20

the owner? Is that morally wrong if there's

42:22

nobody around? Come on stop it this is reality.

42:25

What's the right thing to do? Take care of

42:27

my family or return this money?

42:30

I might have a moral dilemma there.

42:33

A few years later the lady with the

42:35

horse pasture witnesses a second

42:38

armored truck crash in her field.

42:40

It just shouldn't have happened. I mean one

42:42

was enough. I didn't need to and

42:44

I was really really upset

42:47

by this time. I mean I was ranting

42:49

and raving and pointing and gesturing

42:51

and there's no damned excuse

42:53

for this and if anybody

42:54

would just drive decently it wouldn't happen and I'm

42:56

really tired of this happening. A

43:30

very very big thank you to everyone who

43:32

spoke to us for this story. Troy Stokes, Philip

43:35

Dean, Betsy Richards, Delrish

43:37

Moss, Carol Steele and the

43:40

Lucky God. Featuring Shannon

43:42

Cason as a narrator check out Shannon's podcast

43:44

homemade stories to hear more from the Shannon

43:48

and thanks to Tyler Easton who first

43:50

reported Philip Dean's story for the Atlanta

43:52

Journal Constitution and

43:54

thanks as well to Cole Richards and Randy Scott

43:57

Carroll for the recording assistance.

43:59

The original score for this story was

44:02

by Renzo Gorio. It's produced

44:04

by Anna Sussman, John Fasile,

44:07

and Nancy Lopez.

44:17

I know,

44:19

I know, it happened again. But

44:21

if you missed even a moment of today's show,

44:24

subscribe to the Snap Judgment Podcast.

44:27

Subscribe because someone's story might

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just change your life. For real,

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it's changed mine. Get into

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You're probably sitting next to someone right now who

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loves the show. Celebrate! Snapjudgment.org

44:52

Snap is brought to you by the team that knows exactly

44:54

what they'd do if money fell from the sky.

44:57

Everyone knows! Except for

44:59

the uber producer, Mr. Mark Rischage. He'd probably

45:01

spend all his on fruit cups.

45:06

There's Patricity Miller,

45:07

Anna Sussman, Renzo Gorio, John

45:10

Fasile, Shana Shealy, Marissa

45:12

Dodge, Nick Asain, Teo Ducat,

45:15

Leon Morimoto, Flo Wiley, Nancy

45:18

Lopez,

45:18

and Regina Bariaco. And

45:21

this is not the news.

45:23

No way is this the news. In fact, you could

45:25

walk into the police station, tell

45:28

them all about the bad thing you just did, and

45:31

have them laugh at you and call you names.

45:34

And you would still, still

45:37

not be as far away from the news as this is.

45:40

But this is PRX.

45:51

Hey, it's Rima again. I hope you enjoyed

45:53

that story from Snapjudgment as much as I did.

45:56

So we'll be back next week with

45:58

a new episode of This is Uncomfortable. The

46:00

story you heard at the top about Lottie's lost

46:02

birthday card that was produced by Phoebe

46:04

Unterman and me, Rima Reis.

46:07

The episode got additional support from Hannah Harris-Green,

46:10

Alice Wilder, Markei Green, and Yvonne

46:12

Marquez. Zoe Saunders is

46:14

our senior producer. Our editor

46:16

is Jasmine Romero. Markei

46:18

Green is our digital producer with help from Tony

46:20

Wagner. Our new intern is H. Connelly.

46:23

Sound design and audio engineering

46:24

by Drew Jostad. Bridget Bodner

46:27

is Marketplace's director of podcasts. And

46:29

Jessica Levy is the executive director of Digital.

46:32

And our theme music is by Wonder.

46:36

All right, we'll catch y'all next week.

46:45

Hey everyone, I'm Rima Reis, host

46:47

of This is Uncomfortable, a podcast from

46:49

Marketplace. This season, we

46:51

explore how secrets can shape our

46:53

financial lives. We've got stories

46:55

about the creative lengths people go to pay

46:57

off student debt, what it's like to become

47:00

addicted to financial submission, and

47:02

how easy it can be to get stuck in a vicious

47:04

cycle. We take a look at how secrets

47:07

take a toll on our lives and what price

47:09

some are willing to pay for the truth. Listen

47:12

to This is Uncomfortable wherever you get

47:14

your podcasts.