First, it’s the guy selling his hair on eBay for a ton of cash; then the group of cheese factory workers (who are practically our neighbors) that walk away with the record breaking Powerball jackpot; now I hear that a guy who drives on the same stretch of highway I do literary runs into hundreds of dollars. Why don’t these things ever happen to me?
How can it be? Or better yet, where was I when money was flying around in the middle of a Wisconsin highway? That’s what I asked when I heard that Ted Neitzke was driving to a business meeting and suddenly found cash collecting on his car’s windshield and grill. He told local police officers that he saw the bills swirling around his car, but it took him a while to figure out what they were. Once he deduced it was cold hard cash he pulled his car over and began collecting the bills while dodging traffic.
“So here’s this guy — me — in the middle of Highway 50 with a tie picking up money,” Neitzke told officers. “It was just kind of sliding along the road. When a car or truck would drive by, it would go one way, and when another one would drive by, it would go the other way.”
When all was said and done Neitzke had managed to gather a dozen $20 bills and two $1 bills, a total of $242.
But, the kicker to his whole story is that after Neitzke collected the money he then called the local sheriff’s department.
“I was just hoping it wasn’t anybody’s rent money or somebody who needed it,” he said. “I figured it was the right thing to do.”
Sheriff deputies say they were not only shocked to hear how Neitzke got the money, but were more in awe that he turned his windfall in to authorities.
“When people do that, it’s very unique,” sheriff’s deputies said. “Normally people would look around and pocket the money.”
Sheriff’s deputies told Neitzke that they will place the money in an evidence locker, and if no one claims it, he will get it.
Would you have turned the money in?