Posted 11/09/2008 02:59:00 PM by Douglas

Not the first time found money has fucked up someone's life. Probably not the last.

A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.

The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.

It didn't help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties.

And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne — the wealthy businessman who stashed the money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness — will each get a mere fraction of the find.

And now, the obvious question:

He's often asked why he didn't keep his mouth shut and pocket the money. He says he wasn't raised that way.

Found money is found money, dude. If the name on the envelope belongs to someone that's dead, take the money and run.

Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to Hawaii and had sold some of the rare late 1920s bills. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in her closet but testified that she never reported the theft to police.

I guess "stolen" is better than "uh, I lost it."

Sounds like they should have watched this first, or maybe this.