A North Texas barber turned over $128,510 in cash to police after discovering it abandoned on a bank ATM last month.
The 37-year-old man, who has not publicly identified himself, was with a 42-year-old woman at a Lewisville ATM when they spotted bags stuffed with the money plus 19 checks, authorities said. The discovery came at a Bank of America machine in the mid-sized Denton County city.
“I’ve never had a case like this before, ever,” Lewisville police detective Gina Miller said.
The barber’s first instinct after calling 911 was to track down the owner himself. He noticed one of the bags carried a Chick-fil-A label and drove to the fast-food restaurant to see if they would claim it, but the manager denied ownership, police said.
A responding officer counted the cash twice to verify the full amount before securing it. Investigators quickly determined the money was not connected to any crime.
“The bag was just sitting there,” Miller said. “There was no indication of a crime occurring. It looked like it was just left there by accident.”
Police traced the cash to Bank of America and its cash management vendor, Brinks. A Brinks technician had serviced the ATM and was supposed to transport the money but accidentally left the bags on top of the machine, according to authorities. Bank of America later retrieved its lost funds.
“I think to find that kind of money, or that amount of money, is certainly rare,” Lewisville police chief Brook Rollins said. “That’s very unusual. And then to not find it connected to any criminal activity is certainly unusual.”
Rollins pointed to the incident as proof of how police rely on residents to do the right thing.
“We are one half of the equation, the police; the other half is the community,” he said.
The barber found the money on what police described as an ordinary trip to the bank machine, with no hint that more than $128,000 in cash sat exposed on top of the equipment. The checks and labeled bag suggested commercial transport rather than any illicit drop, clues that helped steer his decision toward authorities rather than keeping the windfall.
The Lewisville Police Department and Bank of America did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.