Pen NewsOne thing we’ve learned in life is money doesn’t grow on trees, but it does sometimes fly in mid-air from an armoured truck in rush hour.
Video footage has emerged showing more than a dozen people in Atlanta, Georgia, rushing to grab cash form the ground on a freeway on Tuesday after a ‘substantial amount’ came flying from the truck.
The footage, filmed by motorist Mike Bass, shows the people bending over to collect the money at around 8am, some with their car doors still wide open in the road.
He recalled:
I was heading home for the day. I saw a lot of debris on the road and a number of cars pulled over so I slowed down.
There were over a dozen cars pulled off to the right and to my left a large semi truck and other vehicles were driving across all of the lanes to get to the shoulder.
I saw that it was money and immediately pulled out my phone to film the scene.
I have read before that picking up found money is ‘theft by finding’ so I did not consider stopping to pick any up. It just didn’t seem worth it.
Pen NewsThe 35-year-old added people seemed to be putting themselves at risk in bid to get their hands on the cash.
He said:
There were definitely people running out into the highway.
I-285 is the busiest road in Atlanta with speeds averaging over 75MPH and six lanes in each direction.
It was especially dangerous with the cars and trucks cutting across many lanes of traffic to get to the side.
Pen NewsAuthorities responded to a 911 call which said ‘15 plus vehicles had stopped and people were frantically taking the money.’
Investigators are still trying to establish exactly how much money is missing, but believe it could be more than $100,000 (£90,000).
Sargent Robert Parsons of Dunwoody police told WSB Radio:
Vehicles immediately started stopping and collecting the money.
An armored car was traveling on 285 West when the side door came open, and an unknown amount of money flew out onto the highway.
Pen NewsAmazingly, no injures have been reported from the incident.
Under US law, the finders of lost property must take reasonable steps to locate the owner of that property before they can claim it.
Those who grabbed the cash could be charged with theft of lost or mislaid property, a misdemeanor under Georgia law.
Pen NewsBut police have invited anybody with a guilty conscience to do the right thing and hand over the money.
Sargent Parsons told local media:
They can come into the Dunwoody Police Department 24/7. We will not arrest or charge anyone who does the right thing.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.