As father always said when we asked for a little extra cash, “Do you think money just rains down from the sky?” Well, in the case of today’s story… Yes!

Imagine driving down the highway when suddenly your vehicle is surrounded by things flying around in the air. One sticks to your windshield and you suddenly realize—it’s money! Money flying and scattering all over the highway and piling up on the sides of the road.

We don’t need to ask what you would do. We don’t need to run an experiment to see how people would react. Instead, there is a real case where this happened, and everyone did just what would be expected. They stopped there cars and got out and starting chasing money—putting it into their pockets, shirts, jackets, purses, or anything else that would hold the money.

People were driving along highway I-285 when they noticed money flying in the air and blowing around all over the highway. Apparently, an armored vehicle was transferring money from one bank to another. There was a problem with the truck’s door. It was not closed properly and money was flying out through a gap between the door and the frame.

The drivers had been having trouble with the door latch all day. They reported this to the company, but the dispatcher told them to keep on their scheduled routes, so they did not take the truck in for repairs.

Armored trucks are vehicles that have been made super strong in order to protect the money and people inside. The doors and walls are super thick steel and the windshields are bulletproof.

In all, a total of $175,000 had been spilled onto the highway. A few good citizens turned in some of the money they grabbed, but that total was a mere $4,400.

The good citizen said, “At first, I thought leaves were blowing everywhere. Then, I saw it was money. The first thing that came to mind—jump out of the car and get as much as I can. My mind was really racing. Is this real? It seemed like a movie. Is this a prank? I wasn’t sure what was going on.”

But some time later, the good citizen decided he should turn the money in. “My parents have always taught me that the greatest riches anyone can have is honesty and integrity. It may seem strange to others, but it really felt good doing the right thing.”

Police sent out a warning to others that keeping the money was not finders-keepers. “If you have this money,” said the Chief, “you have committed a crime. It is theft.” He continued the warning saying, “We have video of the incident. We have pictures of your car tags.”

One lawyer disagrees. “This isn’t a crime. The company lost their money because of their own negligence. This was not some kind of natural accident.”

The security company spokesperson said, “It doesn’t matter whether or not it’s a crime, that money is long gone. We’ll never get it back.”