[2M]

Man finds 40K in new house and gives it back - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110520/...us_found_money

By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press – Thu May 19, 8:50 pm ET

SALT LAKE CITY – 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our car in need of repairs, how we would love to adopt a child and aren't able to do that right now, or fix up our outdated house that we just bought," Ferrin said.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."

[Crimson92]

Wow, what a nice guy.

Would I do the same thing? Hard to say.

[yakev724]

Definitely nice to read.

I'd like to think that I'd act the same way but hard to tell unless you're put in that situation...and in a perfect world, I think the sons (who were given the money) would give a sizeable part back.

[TK-421]

Heartwarming story.

I would've definitely kept that shit, who am
I kidding.

[Sara]

Its because its Utah based. Had this happened in New Orleans, totally different outcome.

[Wakka]

Uhhh Cannot say i would give the money back. That's a lot of money. Guess it would depend if they gave me a great deal on the house, or fucked me over.

[gun6slinger9]

LOL at tag...

Honestly I think I would keep some of it... that's a lot of money and the kids would have no idea how much was up there.

[Kroy]

mormons are so nice

[DougLikesBMW]

I'd give it back...I'm a man of principle.

[Freakazoid]

Originally Posted by Wakka

Uhhh Cannot say i would give the money back. That's a lot of money. Guess it would depend if they gave me a great deal on the house, or fucked me over.

glad i'm not the only one who thought that.... if they were nickle and dime-ing on the house, I may not be so generous

[AngelinIsRich08]

Yea, I'd give it back.

[choicez]

I would definitely give the World War II ammunition case metal box back. It might be priceless.

[jpsum]

not sure what to think about a story written by CHI-CHI ZHANG

[ejheverest]

Would give it back, unless he screwed me on the house-deal.

[2M]

$40 sumtin k = a whole lot of mods.

[shipill]

what a great guy.

[koreez88]

I'd keep it. Here, I said it.

[.:bHd:.]

I would at least give 10k back to the guy for returning it. Sounds like he needs it any ways

[BrokenVert]

I'd give it back...but I'd prob skim a bit off the top

[Mr Tonka]

What the article didn't tell you was that there was really over $80k in the attic.......

He got paid AND is a hero. ...possibly.

[persian54]

good news compared to the 2 mil lottery owner who uses food stamps

[ghosthi32]

Originally Posted by MP0WER

What the article didn't tell you was that there was really over $80k in the attic.......

He got paid AND is a hero. ...possibly.

oh really