A routine stop at a Bank of America ATM on a quiet August morning in Lewisville, Texas, turned into a six-figure surprise on a 30-mile highway. Around 10 a.m. on Aug. 3, a 37-year-old barber and a 42-year-old woman stopped by the corner booth and noticed two bags just above the machine.
One bag held exactly $128,514 in cash. The other contained 19 checks. A bank receipt tucked inside matched the total dollar for dollar. The man, who has asked to remain anonymous, didn’t pocket it. Instead, he tried to track down the owner.
Markings on one of the bags led him to believe the money might belong to a nearby Chick-fil-A. He drove the bags straight there. A manager looked them over and said they weren’t the restaurant’s. With Chick-fil-A staff still standing there, the barber called 911 so officers could secure everything.
The total sum of the banknotes was counted twice manually as well as checked on the digital currency counter in the Lewisville police station. There wasn’t even one dollar missing. Very soon it became clear that all the money belonged to the Bank of America and had been delivered by its cash vendor company, Brink’s. It seems that the technician responsible for the maintenance of the ATM forgot to take those bags back.
“Based on some of the contents of the bag, the citizen believed that it belonged to a Chick-fil-A down the road. So he took it to that Chick-fil-A in hopes of returning it to the rightful owner. It did not belong to that Chick-fil-A, so the citizen, with Chick-fil-A standing there, they went ahead and called 911 to have officers come and secure the money,”
Lewisville Police Chief Brook Rollins said.
Detective Gina Miller, who investigated the case, said the scale stood out.
“I’ve never had a case like this before, ever,”
she told hypefresh.
“I’ve had cases where good Samaritans have turned in property that they found wallets, IDs, things like that. But in the case of $128,000, I’ve never had somebody turn in that kind of money before.”
Rollins called the whole episode unusual.
“This person didn’t blink. They took it directly to where they thought it was supposed to be,”
he said.
“There’s a lot of good people out there that really do want to do good.”
Police noted that keeping the money could have led to a felony theft charge, but the barber never went that route. He has declined public recognition or any reward and indicated he would attend a private ceremony if the department invites him.
