Armored car spills $175K on Atlanta highway, creates money storm
Finders keepers does not apply to the thousands of dollars scooped up Tuesday on an Atlanta highway.
About 8 p.m., Dunwoody, Georgia, police officers responded to calls of a money storm on I-285, which circles Atlanta. Callers reported money “flying all over the road,” the police department said in a news release.
More than a dozen vehicles had stopped and police said “people were frantically taking the money.”
Police arrived to find an armored car’s crew who said a side door came open and money went flying out onto the interstate. Various reports estimated $175,000 might have been scooped up by passersby.
“While we certainly understand the temptation, it’s still theft and the money should be returned,” police said Wednesday. “We are thankful there were no crashes or pedestrians struck as a result of this isolated cash storm.”
Dunwoody police posted on their Facebook page the actual Georgia law.
“A person commits the offense of theft of lost or mislaid property when he comes into control of property that he knows or learns to have been lost or mislaid and appropriates the property to his own use without first taking reasonable measures to restore the property to the owner.”
Those who don’t return the money could face either misdemeanor or felony charges, depending on the amount of money not returned.