For the second time in as many weeks, a pile of cash has been found by a citizen in North Vancouver and turned in to police.
In the latest incident, a North Vancouver man was walking down the street in a well-known business district on Tuesday when he stumbled upon a “substantial amount of money” on the sidewalk, said North Vancouver RCMP spokesman Cpl. Richard de Jong.
When he bent down to pick it up, the man realized it was “a lot of cash,” said De Jong.
At first the finder –described as a local resident about 30 years old – thought the cash on the sidewalk might be part of a prank, said de Jong.
But when he realized the wad of cash was for real, he turned it in to police.
Police don’t know who the cash belongs to or why it was lying on the sidewalk.
“Until we find out who the owner is, all options are open,” he said.
Anyone who thinks the money is theirs and can provide accurate details about it – like how much was lost and where it was – can contact the RCMP, said De Jong.
De Jong said police aren’t disclosing all the details of exactly how much cash was found or where in the hopes they can find the rightful owner.
“If it was you and you lost this amount of money, you’d want to come to the police to claim it,” he said.
He said nobody has come forward to claim it yet.
On March 4, a North Vancouver woman on her lunch break found $200 hanging out of a bank machine and also turned in the stack of $20 bills to police. She told police she turned in the cash because “’I just realized that it wasn’t my money and the person who lost it maybe needed it more than I did,’” said De Jong.
In that case, the bank was able to track down the rightful owner of the cash using security video footage.
De Jong acknowledged it’s unusual to have the public turning in found money to the police, rather than pocketing it.
“You like to think that North Vancouver has a community of people with integrity and an interest in helping each other,” he said. “They did the right thing.”
Another question is why others are apparently misplacing significant amounts of cash. “That’s the question of the day,” said de Jong. “Maybe it happens more but people aren’t going to police about it.”
