I saw a report last week about a crate of cash that spilled all over the ground outside a Salt Lake City bank, and was reminded of one of the most incredible events ever to take place in Columbus.
On October 28th, 1987 at 9:30 a.m., the doors to a Metropolitan Armored Car Co. vehicle accidentally popped open, and over $1 million in cash landed in the middle of the busiest freeway in Columbus, I-71 just north of downtown.
Pandemonium ensued. An estimated 100-200 people stopped their cars on the spot, blocking all lanes of the freeway, and began fighting and clawing for bags of cash. An FBI agent who would not give his name happened to be passing at the time of the incident. He told the Columbus Dispatch, "There were people carrying sacks of money. They looked like Santa Claus." He said people were screaming "Praise the Lord!" as they scooped up handfuls of cash.
Only a handful of citizens returned the money in the next few days. The most noteworthy of these was Melvin Kiser, who returned $57,670. He was given a 10% reward.
Over the next three months, the Dispatch ran several stories that now appear as obvious attempts by local officials to coerce the suddenly wealthy to turn in their loot.
-- On October 30th, Metropolitan announced a 10% reward for the return of lost cash.
-- On November 5th, police announced they had video from an amateur photographer that would allow them to identify the participants.
-- On November 6th, the police announced they had been inundated with calls from tipsters reporting participants in the event.
-- On November 12th, a spokesman from the IRS announced that they would be watching carefully for any unexplained income that might result from this incident.
All this saber rattling had little impact, however. By the end of the year, the police had closed the investigation without a single charge filed. While Metro would not divulge the end results of the spill, published reports estimate no more than $70,000 of the original $1 million was returned.
At the time, a couple of local media outlets surveyed Columbus residents, who overwhelmingly responded they would not return the money if this had happened to them.
Unfortunately, these stories are not available on-line.
So -- what would you have done?
