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That's Not Trash; It's A Wad Of Cash

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON and MARK DOUGLAS, The Tampa Tribune News Channel 8

Published: October 5, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Many, many bags are delivered to the county solid waste compound, but most contain trash and they're dumped deliberately.

This one ended up in the middle of the road, well short of the dump, and apparently by accident. Inside was $65,000 in cash.

'I pick it up and it is loaded with money,' said Debbie Cole, a scale-house supervisor who spotted the bag during a break. 'I go, 'Oh my gosh.''

'I've never seen that much money before,' she said. 'When I realized how much money it was, I started shaking.'

The bag apparently fell off an armored truck from the Loomis armored transport company, which had made its first stop of the day at the Pinellas County Utilities solid waste center, 3095 114th Ave N., county officials said.

Cole, a 53-year-old grandmother, did the right thing. She contacted her supervisor, the two women put the bag in a box, and they took it to another supervisor.

Did Cole contemplate keeping the bag of unmarked $50s and $100s, more than double what she makes in a year?

'Everybody's asking me that,' she said. 'No, the thought never entered my mind to take the money, and I don't feel it would enter anybody's mind who works here.'

'It was just a matter of who to call to get it where.'

Cole felt bad for the Loomis employee responsible for the oversight.

'I really thought of the poor guy because I'm saying he's really going to be in trouble. ... He lost this money,' she said.

Mark Clark, a spokesman for Loomis, headquartered in Houston, acknowledged a mistake was made.

'We did inadvertently drop the bag,' Clark said. 'It was an embarrassing and rare mistake. It will be investigated and I'm sure whoever made the mistake will face some repercussion.'

Clark could not say whom the cash belonged to, where it was coming from or where it was going.

Cole begins her shift at 5:45 a.m. as a scale-house service specialist II, assigning employees to scales where they will work weighing the day's take. Because she also handles deposits, she is familiar with the red-striped Loomis bags.

Taking her break at 7 a.m., Cole recognized the Loomis sack. The big surprise came when she saw a bundle with a $10,000 wrapper inside and a sheet tallying the number of $50 and $100 bills, she said.

'If I had won the lottery and won $65,000, I would have retired, paid my health insurance and spent time with my granddaughter, Lena,' Cole said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 536-9603 or mdouglas@wfla.com.

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