Boys catch $100,000 on fishing trip - What would you do?

@RawBill1 (8531)
Gold Coast, Australia
September 19, 2009 4:56am CST
This story came from a newspaper here in Australia. It happened an hour south of where I live! Two teenage boys were out fishing in a river and hauled in a bag containing $100,000 cash!!! They found it earlier this month but only just alerted police after seeking legal advice! The police have searhed the area where the money was found but have come up with no clues as to who the owner of this money might be! The police have also asked for anyone who has any information about the cash to come forward so that they can determine the legal owner of it! I may have to give them a ring and tell them it is mine! What would you do if you found this amount of cash? Would you be honest and hand it in or would you keep it? I think it would definately be very tempting to keep it and say absolutely nothing, but I am not sure if I could do that or not! What do you think???
4 people like this
13 responses
• United States
19 Sep 09
Finding a bag with 100,000 dollars in it is VERY suspiscious. I wouldn't want to keep that money unless I knew nothing bad happened because of it. So I would turn it in to the police--and I believe if no one rightfully claims it and it is not proved to be involved in anything illegal, it gets returned to the person who found it--because it that situation it is rightfully theirs
2 people like this
• Canada
19 Sep 09
well that's interesting how i just posted that. I usually read the post then post my response before reading the other responses. Now my response looks like a rip off of yours :/. what ever though. Yeah i was thinking about how suspicious it was, and if that money was from such a bad cause no one would claim it, then it would just go back to you :D!
1 person likes this
• United States
20 Sep 09
Hey! Great minds think alike! Don't worry...I won't sue you for plagarism lol. I don't think we can be the only two people worrying about where that money came from! lol Money thrown into a lake...hmmm....
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Thanks for your comments guys. Yeah Lily, I think that the police have a waiting period of two or three months and if it is not claimed within that time, then finders keepers! You never know though, the police might even be tempted to keep it themselves! Do not worry about answers sounding the same as others aznrice. I normally do not read the other reply posts too much before I post as I prefer my answer to be more of an honest reply to the original question and not be swayed by others comments!
@aznrice69 (100)
• Canada
19 Sep 09
Well I would probably let the police know, because after all if they can't find the proper owner for it they'll likely just let you keep it. Plus I think the likeliness of the owner not turning up would be high, because it's a little suspicious finding a bag in a pound with that much money; it's not like someone when cruising or something then turned around and their one hundred thousand dollar bag just fell out of their pocket and into the ocean. Maybe something involving money laundering or crime, in which case people wouldn't be to willing to claim it. If the money was old enough with no traceable relative to the owner you'll still get it (sand down all the family seals! xD). I honestly would spend most of the money on material objects, some for savings and some for investments to see if I can turn that one hundred grand into something more. One hundred thousand is a lot, but isn't really a "set for life" cash amount, so I would make sure to spend it on something worth while and lasting (if it was a few billion I'd start thinking gold statues and two floor water fountains).
• United States
20 Sep 09
copy catte!!!! lol Just kidding :P I forgot to say what I'd do with the money! I would probably put it all into my savings account. That would help a lot with getting a house, so I'd put it in my savings...wait a little while, save up a little more money from work and then I would have a good amount for a down payment, and not have to worry too much
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
LOL, you are right, there is a very good chance that you would get to keep it eventually anyway as no-one is going to admit to robbing a bank or whatever and dumping the cash there!! One hundred grand would not go far at all, it would definately not get me out of debt!! But It would be handy to have to invest and turn into much more!
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
It certainly would help to ease some financial worries that's for sure Lily! Thanks for your comments!
@pooh08 (671)
• Vietnam
19 Sep 09
If I have $100,000, I will spend it in invest to earn more money or I will give it to my grandmother for her spend in day. In my country, it's very expensive for live in a day.I will give a half and remain half I spend for me. First I spend is on education. The second is my travel. I love travel too much.
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Thanks for sharing, you have good plans for the money. Some would waste it I am sure! Travel is great and would be a fantastic way to spend the extra cash too!
@shia88 (4571)
• Malaysia
19 Sep 09
Hi Rawbill, Cash $100,000 is a lot of money. If this situation happened to me, I may probably just keep the money.Since the money come to me by itself, why should I reject it. At the same time, I will donate some the money to charities and spend some for holiday.
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Thanks for sharing Shia. I like your thoughts about the money coming to you by itself if you find it! If you reject it, then you are sending a message out to the universe that you are not willing to receive and you may never come across good fortune like that again! Giving to charities is always a nice thing to do!
@mattivdw (46)
• Antarctica
19 Sep 09
How old were these boys? If a friend and I found it, we wouldn't tell it to anyone. The chance of returning it is bigger when you tell everybody. They better just divided it halfways and put it under their matrasses:) Or put it on the bank for some intrest. But then people will ask you where did you get 100,000 flipflaps. "I found it" :) They can put a really big smile on their faces. Probably fishing is now the most popular sport in your region:) Take care
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Thanks for your comments! I am not sure of their ages, the article did not go into much detail, just that they were teenagers! Maybe if they were young teenagers, they could not think of any way to hide the cash safely while keeping it quiet, so that is why they handed it in! Yeah, local fishing shops maybe experiencing a boom in business because of that story!
• Philippines
19 Sep 09
Wow! What a big fish! If i have money like that i will just keep quiet and deposit to my bank, some of it i will donate to charity and churches, i dont know where the money came from so it's better to keep it.
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
It is a big fish isnt it!!! I bet they thought they had caught a whopper! Glad to see another who is willing to give to a charity! Thanks for sharing
• Australia
19 Sep 09
I might spend ten seconds considering it, then go out and buy proceeds the digital TV we want and some new clothes and a trailer load of plants for the garden and .... That amount of money, if spent over a year, wouldn't even make a splash, so virtually no chance of ever having to explain it. And since I can conceive of no moral or ethical grounds whatsoever to declare it, on the basis that that much money in a bag in the ocean has a .9999 probability of being the proceeds of crime, I would not lose a second's sleep over it. Lash
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Yeah, the money would be from crime I reckon! I agree that you could hide the spending over time, some small items here and there and a few more house payments, weekends away...etc. The only thing I would be worried about is whether or not the money was traceable through the identification numbers on the notes! Obviously if you were in possesion of the notes, you would be able to tell if they were new notes with consecutive numbers or older notes! Thanks for commenting!
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
19 Sep 09
Tempting for sure! Considering that amount would pay most of my mortgage…Honestly I could not keep it though. It is a large sum of money and the fact that is was stashed in a bag like that makes me wonder how it was obtained. If I found it I would be tempted, consider keeping for a while and then hand it in to the Police!
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Thanks for sharing Paula, I reckon that I would most probably do the same, but I do not know for sure, as it would be very nice to have my mortgage paid off too!
1 person likes this
@Iriene88 (5343)
• Malaysia
19 Sep 09
Dear RawBill, First of all, checked whether the cash is 'marked'? Secondly make sure it is 'genuine' money not 'fake'. Thirdly ensure no one else know about it. Oh No, this is so tempting...seek for legal advise like the two teenagers did! However, in case I change my mind, I will not seek legal advise...shared it equally with the other guy and slowly dispose of the money....LOL I relly can't decide right now, perhaps when I really found those money, I will let you know! Ahoy!..., lets go fishing some treasures this weekend :)
1 person likes this
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Hi Iriene, thanks for your thoughts! It never crossed my mind that the money might be fake but making sure it is not marked would be a priority if I was planning to keep it! I cannot decide what I would do either and even if I did decide now, actually being in possesion of the money in real life may sway me! Yeah, maybe I need to to take up fishing...LOL
• China
20 Sep 09
This news really shocked people! I also make the hard choices to face with this situation . But I think the forces for justice will overcome evile in my heart.HAHAHHA
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Thanks for your comments, it really would be hard to keep it without feeling guilty, wouldn't it!
@morange (92)
• Nepal
20 Sep 09
If i ever got this much of amount then i wont be returning to police or inform anyone else cause this will be one of the great opportunities in the whole life and it would be hard to get such opportunity.. if i got that much of money then i would first buy a big house and a brand new car..and the remaining will be spent on traveling and so on but this is just a imaginary..
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Cool...Wow, this amount of money will not buy half of what you just mentioned here in Australia! Maybe I need to move in with you...LOL
20 Sep 09
I'd keep it, without a doubt. Although I'd sit on it a while in case anything on the news surfaced about something crime related in the area. Then I'd slowly spend it over a year or two so that nobody got suspicious.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
20 Sep 09
Great thinking, that is what I would probably do too, although it may be hard to control myself and spend it slowly...LOL
• United States
6 Jun 11
If you find $100,000 in the river first off you have to think about what is the net worth of wet money? Then you have to realize what the person who lost it probably feels like, I know for me it would feel like a giant gaping hole right in my gut. But then you have to think what is a bag of money doing in the river in the first place? There are far to many factors in play for you to find the 100% correct way of handling the money, it all boils down to in your current mental state, how do YOU feel the money should be dealt with.
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
7 Jun 11
Welcome to MyLot! Yes, it would be very disappointing for the person who lost the money, but as you say. What was it doing there in the first place. Must be stolen you would think and dumped for later collection! The wet money would be fine after it dried out as our money is plastic and handles being wet just fine.