ATLANTA, GEORGIA – A busy highway in the Atlanta suburbs turned into a big cash-grabbing payday for some drivers.
Drivers scrambled onto the highway after pulling over their vehicles following an armored truck’s door swinging open by accident while it drove through Interstate 285 this Tuesday evening. The incident saw cash being spilled all over the highway.
There is a video that shows some drivers pulling onto the side of the highway in Dunwoody, Georgia, and racing to swoop up as much cash as they can. Even a timber-hauling semitrailer is seen pulled over on the highway in eyewitness video footage.
According to Atlanta’s WSB, Sgt. Robert Parsons of Dunwoody said he estimates around $175,000 spilled onto the highway.
However, drivers won’t be able to keep their haul of cash.
“Those people who do not return the money, we have video, we have tag numbers. We have footage of people on the interstate,” Sgt. Parsons said to WSB. “What we’re asking the public to do is bring the money back. Don’t make us come looking for you, because if we do that, you probably will be charged.”
The video does in fact show the license plates of most of the vehicles that lined up on the highway.
There weren’t any accidents reported that Tuesday night, but police in Dunwoody gave a warning to commuters who were still stopping on the highway Wednesday to search for money, “There is no more money! Please stop!.”
On Twitter, The City of Dunwoody @DunwoodyGA tweeted a photo of a man who turned in some cash, and with it a message that said, “Honesty is the best policy. Some people have been returning the money that fell from an armored car on I-285 last night. We salute you for doing the right thing.”
Honesty is the best policy. Some people have been returning the money that fell from an armored car on I-285 last night. We salute you for doing the right thing. @DunwoodyPolice #Dunwoody pic.twitter.com/twHRAdtA1l
— City of Dunwoody, GA (@DunwoodyGA) July 10, 2019
A driver named Randall Lewis who was on the highway that day and returned $2,150 on Wednesday told WSB that, “It looked like piles of leaves blowing in the wind. I could not believe my eyes that this was legit money.”
Cases like this have happened before, including in New Jersey in December of 2018. During that incident, an armored truck let loose $300,000 onto Route 3 in East Rutherford near the MetLife Stadium, which is the home of the NFL’s Jets and Giants. Authorities also urged people to turn in the money in that incident and made threats to track people down if they didn’t.
An amount in the tens of thousands of dollars was turned into during the following weeks of that incident. However, it is unknown if people were actually tracked down or prosecuted by authorities.
Video and Source Credit: ABCNews.com
