CDOT Crew Finds Bag Of Cash, Turns It In
ROGGEN, Colo. (AP) - What state transportation workers found along an interstate in northeast Colorado wasn't your ordinary bag of trash.
Colorado Department of Transportation employees Jim Rider and Kirby Harris found a duffle bag with $10,000 inside while cleaning up along Interstate 76 Thursday. They were cleaning debris stirred up by snowplows near Roggen when they saw drug paraphernalia and personal papers scattered along the eastbound lane of I-76.
"I just took a quick peek and I saw a stack of $100 bills," said Rider.
"And of course I didn't believe him because it's kind of a standard joke that today we're going to find a big pile of money lying on the side of the road," said Harris.
Rider and Harris found the bag at the end of the debris trail. Rider says the cash, mostly $100s and $50s, was in a plastic bag. They say there was never a question about handing the money to authorities.
"There was quite a bit of medical marijuana catalogues, some paraphenalia lying on the side of the road," said Harris.
"There were indicators inside the duffle bag as to who the owner might be," said Colorado State Trooper Heather Cobler.
If the owner is not found and no one claims the cash after six months, the money goes into the state coffers.
"That money would be considered abandoned and forfeited to the state," said Cobler.
Transportation Department spokeswoman Stacey Stegman said employees find all kinds of things, including wallets.
"We knew that we had to face ourselves in the mirror in the morning and we knew that the right thing to do was to turn it over to the authorities," said Harris.
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