WEST BEND, Wis. (AP) Larry Hoffman brought home a bargain shirt from the Goodwill store—only to find $2,000 in cash stuffed in a pocket.
The 69-year-old retiree returned to the store the same day to report the money.
“The money certainly wasn’t mine. It belonged to somebody else, obviously,” Hoffman said of his April 1 find. “That person was certainly on my mind more than me.”
Store manager Rebecca Johnson said customers have returned small amounts of money found in clothing, “but nothing on this scale” in the six years she’s been in charge.
“If there’s a one-tenth of 1 percent chance that somebody’s going to claim it, they should have that opportunity,” Hoffman said Wednesday.
Goodwill has no way to trace the source of the shirt, so Johnson called West Bend police. The rightful owner has 90 days to claim the money. After that, Hoffman can claim it or else it goes in the city treasury.
Police won’t disclose any details about the shirt or the denominations of the bills that were found. That information has to come from anyone seeking to claim the money.
When we were kids, it was always ‘finders keepers, losers weepers,”’ Hoffman said. “But that’s not really the case. You’ve got to keep the losers from weeping too much.”
