Money Memory #1: A few years ago I found $20 in an old canvas purse. I should note that it was my old purse and I had forgotten about the $20 I placed in the front pocket. Still, I was excited. I emailed my family members!
Money Memory #2: In 2007, a friend paid me $75 for some kind of something and I set the stack of bills on my piano. An hour later, I couldn’t find the stack. I searched everywhere for the money. I pulled the piano away from the wall, stuck a flashlight inside its backside, even looked in rooms the bills never visited. The money was never recovered and the list of things I would have liked to have used the money for grew and grew. It still grows. And even though I’ve moved from the house I lived in at the time, I haven’t given up hope that the $75 will show itself.
Considering how emotional I became over a combined total of less than $100, I cannot even imagine how I would have reacted had I been Josh Ferrin of Salt Lake City, an artist for the Deseret News. The story, in short, is that he discovered something like $45,000 inside the home he had recently purchased – $45,000 in rolled up bills carefully stashed in WWII-era ammunition cases, hidden away by Arnold Bangerter, the previous owner, who had died in November 2010 after living in the house for over forty years. (Read it here.)
Ferrin gave the money back.
I applaud him, especially his empathy for the man who carefully put aside that money over the years. Ferrin, a first-time homebuyer, knew that Bangerter was saving on behalf of his children and grandchildren. That money belonged to them.
As this exceptionally honest man told one news reporter, “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.”
So Ferrin did the right thing. And bless his heart for it! It’s heartening to think about people making the right choices, even when those right choices are tough. Ferrin did share with the reporter, however, that there were at least a few moments of temptation:
“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our car in need of repairs, how we would love to adopt a child and aren’t able to do that right now, or fix up our outdated house that we just bought. “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.
I am inspired by this concept of “radical honesty” and believe that I would have returned the money as well. But probably not before spending at least two hours savoring the possibilities of what I could do with $45,000. A down payment on a new house wouldn’t be necessary, since this obviously WAS a new house (and a lucky one at that). But I would buy a new piano, take my family to Europe, then return to Europe without my family for a second trip, probably buy a cool tandem bicycle, who knows?
Oh yeah, and save for my children’s futures.
Which is what the original saver likely had in mind.
Mr. Bangerter, pinching pennies, or, more accurately, rolling dollar bills for a rainy days, also inspires me. This man could have spent the money on himself, but instead put it aside for others, year by year by year.
How about you? Would you be radically honest? Or would you consider the money yours since it came with the house?
Would you consider putting some of your life savings in a place other than a bank, just to make it interesting for your progenitors?
I love this post. And, the story reminds me of an ABC After School Special, except that it’s a really good one.
Is it just me, or do many females like to stash $ in coat pockets, jeans pockets or purses just so they can find them a year later to get that “I just found some $” rush? Or maybe it’s a function of how purses work v. how wallets work. Guys generally have to keep their $ in their wallet at all times, and, either in ascending or descending orders of currency dollar amounts. Females like to stash $ in pockets randomly, including that thing we call a pocketbook, which is really just another odd name for a handbag or purse, unless pocketbooks, unbeknownst to me, have fabric linings that have printed reading materials on them. Surely there is some deeper meaning in all this?
This is a cool story. I’ll have to share it with the kids and see what they think.
I would’ve given the money back. That seems like a pretty clear case to me. But there are other things that are not so clear. So is it the size of the sum that makes it “radically honest”? Or does that label apply no matter the sum?
I’ve never thought about hiding money away . . . I guess that idea assumes that you will be living in the same house for years and years. Somethings we’ve never done.