If you bought a house and found 45k in the garage, would you keep/return it?

SparkyTech

This guy was honest enough not to splurge money that wasn't his to spend. If you were in the same predicament would ya splash the cash on fancy goods? Or be honest and give it back/put it in the poor box?

When Josh Ferrin closed on his family's first home, he never thought he'd make the discovery of a lifetime — then give it back.

Ferrin picked up the keys earlier this week and decided to check out the house in the Salt Lake City suburb of Bountiful. He was excited to finally have a place his family could call their own.

As he walked into the garage, a piece of cloth that clung to an attic door caught his eye. He opened the hatch and climbed up the ladder, then pulled out a metal box that looked like a World War II ammunition case.

"I freaked out, locked it my car, and called my wife to tell her she wouldn't believe what I had found," said Ferrin, who works as an artist for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City.

Then he found seven more boxes, all stuffed full with tightly wound rolls of cash bundled together with twine — more than $40,000.

Ferrin quickly took the boxes to his parent's house to count. Along with his wife and children, they spread out thousands of bills on a table, separating the bundles one by one.

They stopped counting at $40,000, but estimated there was at least $5,000 more on the table.

Ferrin thought about how such a large sum of money could go a long way, pay bills, buy things he never thought he could afford.

"I'm not perfect, and I wish I could say there was never any doubt in my mind. We knew we had to give it back, but it doesn't mean I didn't think about our car in need of repairs, how we would love to adopt a child and aren't able to do that right now, or fix up our outdated house that we just bought," Ferrin said. "But the money wasn't ours to keep and I don't believe you get a chance very often to do something radically honest, to do something ridiculously awesome for someone else and that is a lesson I hope to teach to my children."

He thought about the home's previous owner, Arnold Bangerter, who died in November and left the house to his children.

"I could imagine him in his workshop. From time to time, he would carefully bundle up $100 with twine, climb up into his attic and put it into a box to save. And he didn't do that for me," Ferrin said of the man who had worked as a biologist for the Utah Department of Fish and Game.

Bangerter purchased the home in 1966 and lived there with his wife, who died in 2005.

After most of the money was counted, Ferrin called one of Bangerter's sons with the news.

Kay Bangerter said he knew his father hid away money because he once found a bundle of cash taped beneath a drawer in their home, but he never considered his dad had stuffed away so much over the years.

"He grew up in hard times and people that survived that era didn't have anything when they came out of it unless they saved it themselves," Kay Bangerter, the oldest of the six children, told the Deseret News. "He was a saver, not a spender."

Bangerter called the money's return "a story that will outlast our generation and probably yours as well."

"I'm a father, and I worry about the future for my kids," Ferrin said. "I can see him putting that money away for a rainy day and it would have been wrong of me to deny him that thing he worked on for years. I felt like I got to write a chapter in his life, a chapter he wasn't able to finish and see it through to its conclusion."

siobhan.murphy

keep it

phasers

Keep it! No question, especially in the instance described in the OP.

OutlawPete

No way, that old guy put that money away bit by bit over the years and so his loved ones should get it, not someone who just happened to stumble across it. Good on the people that handed it over, hope they got a reward, throughly deserved if they did.

The Orb

Keeping it is the same as stealing it. It's not mine to keep. Yes the money would be nice, it is tempting, but dignity and a clear conscience have no price for me.

RachaelVO

Keep it! I'd like to think I'd be a bit honourable, but I'm pretty sure I'd be a reprobate and spend every penny on meself ;-)

CantGetNoSleep

There was a brilliant thread on here about the same thing a few years ago in a rented apartment in Dublin, a bit less money though, anyone able to find it?

Oh_Noes

Give it to whoever owns it, no different to stealing it if you don't.

m@cc@

The standard AH response is going to be to keep it, but we know that the reality would be very different.

latenia

Of course he should have kept it because it was rightfully his. When you buy a house you get whatever's been left behind, for good or bad and it's the previous owner's fault for being so lazy and inconsiderate not cleaning the house thoroughly. What if they left behind some old furniture that turned out to be worth $45K?

EverEvolving

I wonder what the law would state on this one? How could it be stealing if you own the house and it's contents? It is the responsibility of the previous tenants/owners to clear the premises before it is sold on.

It may be morally right to return it but legally I would imagine the cash is yours.

I'd probably keep it. And pay for sleeping tablets if my conscience was keeping me up at night!

ArtyM

It would be a very difficult thing to return it if I were struggling financially, as I kind of am, but the money was put there for his family so I think my conscience would lead me to return it. Surely a reward was offered.

hondasam

I would return it, would not even consider keeping it.

Yakult

I'd love to keep it but I probably wouldn't. (Maybe just a few grand for my honesty tho)

papajohn12

My first and instant reaction would be to keep it for myself. But I wouldn't dare spend it as soon as I get the chance to. I'd probably not be able to sleep for a few days and contemplate over and over again what to do with it. If there is enough reason and logic to believe it belonged to the previous owner, I'd probably give it back to him, of course with a little regret but I guess it'd be the right thing to do. I wouldn't want someone finding my money and not return it to me, either.

OutlawPete

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

There was a brilliant thread on here about the same thing a few years ago in a rented apartment in Dublin, a bit less money though, anyone able to find it?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055083893

Kasabian

I'd keep enough for a takeaway and a movie and give the rest back.

newbee22

Keep it! If you bought the house, you own it! I think I'd be too afraid to spend it though!

demanufactured

Blast it with piss!!!

sonic85

latenia wrote: »

Of course he should have kept it because it was rightfully his. When you buy a house you get whatever's been left behind, for good or bad and it's the previous owner's fault for being so lazy and inconsiderate not cleaning the house thoroughly. What if they left behind some old furniture that turned out to be worth $45K?

did you even read the story? the man died FFS. awful lot of dishonest people knocking around no wonder society is so fcuked up.

mikemac

Keep it

When you buy a house you don't want the last owners to leave eight boxes behind cluttering up the place

If it were eight boxes of rubbish the sellers would be slow about cleaning up. They were supposed to clear all this before it was sold

My name is URL

I'd like to think that I'd hand it in.. but dunno if I would when push came to shove!

johnnycnandy

I wish I was the kind of person who could hand it over, but I know there'd be no chance. I have no morals...

latenia

sonic85 wrote: »

did you even read the story? the man died FFS. awful lot of dishonest people knocking around no wonder society is so fcuked up.

Yes, and when he died his son became the owner. Read this sory:

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/tourist-sells-euro3-first-edition-of-wuthering-heights-for-euro8000-2644547.html

Should he return the book because it's a lot more valuable than the vendor thought?

Eve_Dublin

I'd presume it was Candid Camera or something and I was being tested, so I'd give it back because of my paranoia. I'd probably keep a sneaky 100 though on the sly.

sonic85

latenia wrote: »

Yes, and when he died his son became the owner. Read this sory:

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/tourist-sells-euro3-first-edition-of-wuthering-heights-for-euro8000-2644547.html

Should he return the book because it's a lot more valuable than the vendor thought?

was the book hollowed out and replaced with a bundle of cash? no? then its a totally different situation to be honest. most people wouldnt be able to spot something rare like that

yomamasflavour

What if you bought the house, started renovating it and found out that there were no proper foundations underneath the house (happens frequently with older houses).

Would you go back to the previous owner looking for the cost of putting in a foundation?

doubleglaze

I would, without a second thought or a second of regret, hand it back to its rightful owner.

However, I might - Might - make an exception had I definitely been defrauded to the tune of the same amount by the vendor. Say, for instance, the vendor knowingly sold a house with a terrible structural problem. For instance, if the vendor plastered over a damp leaky wall (maybe a pipe leaking inside) and repainted it rather than repairing the problem, in a deliberate effort to conceal the fault.

sonic85

its funny really - the same people that would take the money no problem are the same peolpe that b!tch about dishonest bankers and crooked politicians.

if you havent earned or won the money then its not yours simple as

admiralofthefleet

id go straight down to the bookies, stick it on a long odds on jolly then return it after collecting thw winnings

Posy

I'd love to keep it but I think I'd be too worried about karma. Like, if I put the money towards a house, it'd burn down, if I bought a car with the money, I'd crash it, or went on a holiday, I'd die in a freak scubadiving accident.

alexa5x5

Give it back, you'd never have a minutes luck if you kept it.

sdanseo

AH (and poll answer for me sins) Answer: Gamble it, if you win, pay the owner keep the rest, if you lose you'll be too pissed off about it to care about your conscience :P

Or, invite the previous owner round and show him the money, act like you're returning it. If s/he offers a reward, be happy, otherwise tell them to get off your land, keep the money (knowing America you'd be able to legally shoot them at this point, most likely) then emigrate.

Honestly: I'd return it and pray for a reward. But if it was $40k I'd have in bundled in bunches of $15,000 so you'd give it to the lad, "eh, there's $30k there and a bit left over as well" in the hope he doesn't count it and gives me 10 grand :P

McChubbin

I'm incapable of empathy so it'd be no weight on my mind to keep it.
I need the cash.