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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 02:44 PM Sep 2018

California teen finds purse with $10,000 inside, turns it in to police

A Santa Barbara, California, high school junior was driving home from school Wednesday when he noticed a black purse in the middle of the street. He rescued the purse from the roadway and was shocked by what he found inside: $10,000.

Rhami Zeini, 16, says he opened the purse to find the owner's identification and was surprised when he discovered more money than he had ever seen in his life, reports CBS affiliate KCOY-TV. Zeini spoke with his parents and then did the right thing by turning in the small fortune to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

The sheriff's office said in a Facebook post that a watch officer was able to contact the owner and return the money to her, writing she "was very grateful."

Zeini wasn't left empty-handed for his good deed. The purse's owner was so touched by the teen's honest actions that she gave him a $100 reward for his trouble, reports KCOY-TV.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/santa-barbara-california-teen-rhami-zeini-finds-purse-with-10000-turns-it-in-to-police/

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California teen finds purse with $10,000 inside, turns it in to police (Original Post) left-of-center2012 Sep 2018 OP
Reward should have been marybourg Sep 2018 #1
A good rule of thumb NoSmoke Sep 2018 #4
Yes, I was thinking marybourg Sep 2018 #9
Yep. I live in Santa Barbara where some people have too much money. Glimmer of Hope Sep 2018 #6
Who knows? Could be the day's receipts from a family-owned business. nt Hekate Sep 2018 #31
You shouldn't need a reward to do the right thing mythology Sep 2018 #8
Of Course ChubbyStar Sep 2018 #10
Who knows Johnny2X2X Sep 2018 #12
And the cops returned the $1,000 to it's rightful owner liberaltrucker Sep 2018 #2
That's what I was thinking as well..... a kennedy Sep 2018 #7
The rest was kept because the money must have committed a crime. defacto7 Sep 2018 #20
100 wow he could have kept the 10g Fullduplexxx Sep 2018 #3
Good kid! MineralMan Sep 2018 #5
Who the heck carries about 10 grand in cash? NT Adrahil Sep 2018 #11
I have SoCalDem Sep 2018 #13
Well okay.... but it seems a bit odd to me... Adrahil Sep 2018 #18
You probably wouldn't have left it in your purse on top of your car while you went for a hike, deurbano Sep 2018 #22
I have Awsi Dooger Sep 2018 #14
Are you Joe Pesci? Adrahil Sep 2018 #19
Actually I'm a foot taller at 6-4 Awsi Dooger Sep 2018 #27
The correct answer might have been to tell them to go get their shine box. AdamGG Sep 2018 #32
Can totally relate Separation Sep 2018 #28
I never had a credit card until I was 49 Awsi Dooger Sep 2018 #30
Lol we sound a lot alike. Separation Sep 2018 #33
I have never had Facebook Awsi Dooger Sep 2018 #34
My father did--and more--back in the late 80's, early 90's mnhtnbb Sep 2018 #21
Happens all the time DFW Sep 2018 #26
We had a workman think he'd lost his wallet while cleaning gutters mnhtnbb Sep 2018 #15
Sweet story. thanks for sharing. iluvtennis Sep 2018 #17
He was so grateful. I can't imagine losing your rent money like that. mnhtnbb Sep 2018 #23
Agree. Should have been larger reward for this young man - $1000 iluvtennis Sep 2018 #16
Was Working At A Building I Own Pulling Weeds When A Mexican I Hired At Home Depot Held Up A Wedding PaulX2 Sep 2018 #24
1% tip? - cheap bastard lame54 Sep 2018 #25
That's a good-looking kid, maybe he'll get a modeling offer. Croney Sep 2018 #29
 

NoSmoke

(69 posts)
4. A good rule of thumb
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 03:03 PM
Sep 2018

in a case like this is to offer 10% as a reward. OTOH, maybe the owner needed all or most of that 10K for something important(?).

marybourg

(12,540 posts)
9. Yes, I was thinking
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 03:33 PM
Sep 2018

the same, but even if the whole amount was needed loser should have extended her/himself. I think.

Glimmer of Hope

(5,823 posts)
6. Yep. I live in Santa Barbara where some people have too much money.
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 03:12 PM
Sep 2018

Who carries $10K on a hike or anywhere?

ChubbyStar

(3,191 posts)
10. Of Course
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 03:38 PM
Sep 2018

But the owner was given a favor, and that deserves recompense. Why be so harsh all the time?

Johnny2X2X

(18,739 posts)
12. Who knows
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 03:50 PM
Sep 2018

Maybe this person had every last penny they could muster for a large cash purchase when they lost it. $100 might have been all they could spare.

SoCalDem

(103,856 posts)
13. I have
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 03:54 PM
Sep 2018

We pay cash for cars, and I took $18K in hundreds to a dealership when we bought my husband's used truck.. Got a fantastic deal because we had cash..

There's just something about seeing $18K in cash piled up on a desk that makes a salesman want to sell you that car especially when you tell them you can take that money elsewhere..

 

Adrahil

(13,340 posts)
18. Well okay.... but it seems a bit odd to me...
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:27 PM
Sep 2018

I mean, I've made some large "cash" transactions, but I paid either by check or EFT.

deurbano

(2,891 posts)
22. You probably wouldn't have left it in your purse on top of your car while you went for a hike,
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:34 PM
Sep 2018

though! And after the hike, you probably wouldn't have driven off with the purse still on top of the car. I think most of us would want to get that money to its destination a little faster than that... and to keep a good eye on it in the meantime!

(We have used $10,000 plus in cash to pay for cars, too, when buying through Craigslist... We also bought a wheelchair ramp van through Craigslist for $25,000, but used a cashier's check for that.)

 

Awsi Dooger

(14,565 posts)
14. I have
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:08 PM
Sep 2018

I often was carrying that type of cash while sports bettor in Las Vegas. In fact, I would hate to provide the specifics of just how high it got on occasion, when I was carrying money for myself and two guys I was working with in middling/scalping games. Let's just say it was well into six figures, in terms of cash, casino chips and winning sports tickets.

Many times since leaving Las Vegas I've thought about how fortunate I was. No matter how careful you are, someone can easily target you. There were countless examples of groups of people targeting one guy who was carrying a bundle.

Anyway, I turned in more than $10,000 after finding a stuffed wallet downstairs alongside a pay phone at Caesar's Palace in 1996. I have told that story here previously. I was making an early morning phone call to the main guy in our wagering operation when I noticed the stuffed wallet in front of the next phone. There was nobody there. It was maybe 6:30 AM on a Saturday morning, down the escalators near the bathrooms. Absolutely empty. Las Vegas is not alive at that hour. I remained on the phone for 15 minutes. Nobody came to claim the wallet.

Finally I picked it up and went up the escalator. The wallet was jammed with cash and sports tickets. This is obviously a gambler's wallet. I wasn't going to take any chances. I walked directly to the security counter and handed the wallet. That was it. They didn't react or take my name at all. The security guy merely took the wallet, thanked me, and set it aside on a lower shelf.

 

Awsi Dooger

(14,565 posts)
27. Actually I'm a foot taller at 6-4
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:54 PM
Sep 2018

But I have tons of Las Vegas stories and friends are telling me I should write a book. It is basically an unknown world to outsiders.

Separation

(1,975 posts)
28. Can totally relate
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 05:07 PM
Sep 2018

With the exception of finding a stuffed wallet. People can carry obscene amounts of cash on them. It's not the "norm", especially these days because somebody invented credit cards and check books. But who wants to be "normal"

 

Awsi Dooger

(14,565 posts)
30. I never had a credit card until I was 49
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 05:35 PM
Sep 2018

In Las Vegas I'm not sure I knew anyone who owned a credit card. Not in our circle anyway.

I do remember one time we ate at a fancy restaurant upstairs at Imperial Palace and a guy we knew named Kaufman volunteered to pay. When he pulled out a credit card we were stunned. Literally staring at it, and the transaction. I told the rest of the guys I had heard about that type of thing. It was maybe 1999.

My first credit card was a sad story. My mom died suddenly and I needed a suit. My dad and I drove to Macys. He told me to open a credit card to establish a credit history. But they hesitated forever, while making one call after another. They couldn't believe someone of that age had no credit history. Finally they approved me but for only $100. What a joke.

That was less than a decade ago. Now I'm disturbingly normal, with a flock of credit cards. As I type this I don't have one dollar cash in my wallet. Sigh. The credit card companies now like me. I have never been turned down and have a $21,000 limit, and $19,000, and $17,500 and so forth. Macys closed down the $100 card several years ago due to lack of usage. The bums never warned me beforehand.

Separation

(1,975 posts)
33. Lol we sound a lot alike.
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 05:55 PM
Sep 2018

I'm actually taking my life back, bit by bit and small bites at a time. I recently quit Facebook and Twitter. I'm hoping to have a smaller online footprint by February, including credit cards.

 

Awsi Dooger

(14,565 posts)
34. I have never had Facebook
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 06:10 PM
Sep 2018

Just started dabbling on Twitter, mostly to fire out some anti-Trump stuff.

I was fascinated by credit cards for a while because I like numbers. It was interesting to see how my credit score would vary, depending what I did. Finally I got over it and haven't applied for anything in more than 2 years.

mnhtnbb

(31,318 posts)
21. My father did--and more--back in the late 80's, early 90's
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:32 PM
Sep 2018

when interest rates at banks were much higher.

He was taking large amounts of cash and moving it around between short term interest bearing accounts at different banks. My brother found out and put a stop to it. My dad was in his 80's at the time and had always been very secretive about money and was also beginning to show signs of dementia.

DFW

(54,050 posts)
26. Happens all the time
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:49 PM
Sep 2018

Sometimes people buy things where there is no time to verify their bank info or credit card worthiness. In Texas, there have been a lots of scams with crooks buying gold or jewelry (or trying to) with "legitimate" cashier's checks that weren't, though they checked out after an initial call to the bank.

Heritage Auctions of Dallas once auctioned off a rare Russian coin in California for $250,000. A rich Russian who had no bank account in the USA bought it, and wanted to fly home with it the next day. He had brought $300,000 in (genuine!) $100 bills with him, and wanted to pay his invoice with it. The Heritage staff freaked out at first, but the guy produced a legitimate U.S. Customs declaration proving he had declared it to Customs upon arrival at LAX, and imported it legally. It says right on the form: ANY amount is legal, you just have to declare it if it's over $10,000.

With all the bank and stolen credit card scams going on, there are plenty of situations where a seller would want cash if there were no time to verify a payment by someone from out of town who wanted to take his purchase with him. If everything is declared from one end to the other, and Customs and the IRS get their paperwork, then it's their business if they want to conduct their transaction that way.

mnhtnbb

(31,318 posts)
15. We had a workman think he'd lost his wallet while cleaning gutters
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:24 PM
Sep 2018

at our house in Nebraska years ago. He came back the next day to ask us if he could look all around the perimeter of the house for it. It had his whole month's rent--in cash--in it. I told him to go ahead and look. He didn't find it, left his number and asked me to call if it turned up.

The next morning I looked out the window to the fenced area of our backyard and noticed our dog, Tanya, seemed to be poking around with something. I went out to look and it was the wallet! I called the guy and he came over later with a box of Milk-Bones as a reward for our dog.

That was the best "reward" I'd ever seen.

mnhtnbb

(31,318 posts)
23. He was so grateful. I can't imagine losing your rent money like that.
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:38 PM
Sep 2018

I've often wondered whether Tanya had already found--and moved--the wallet when he came to look and that's why he didn't find it when he walked the perimeter of the house. It was an old 3 story house from the 1920's with lots of shrubbery around it and plenty of places where it could have been hidden from view.

 

PaulX2

(2,032 posts)
24. Was Working At A Building I Own Pulling Weeds When A Mexican I Hired At Home Depot Held Up A Wedding
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 04:40 PM
Sep 2018

Ring, and asked me if it was mine.

He found it in a flower bed where I was working a few minutes earlier.

It was mine.

Momma would have killed me DEAD.

I gave him $200, and thanked him over, and over.

I'll never forget.

Croney

(4,646 posts)
29. That's a good-looking kid, maybe he'll get a modeling offer.
Tue Sep 18, 2018, 05:11 PM
Sep 2018

I guess I'm the only shallow one here? Lol (I have grandkids older than he is.)

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