Man finds bag of $17K in cash, turns it in

Early one day late in the summer, Kevin Booth was hungry, so the homeless man went to his local food bank in Sumner, Washington, looking for the bread that is left outside overnight for people to take.

But instead of the bread box, a brown paper bag outside the locked front door caught his attention. Booth opened it and saw it was filled with cash: what proved later to be $17,000.

Booth, 32, said in an interview with The News Tribune in Tacoma that he slid out a $20 bill.

“Of course, I sniffed it to see if it was real.” It smelled legitimate. “Then I was like: Do I take off, or do I stay?” he told the newspaper.

He didn’t know the amount of cash, but he knew it wasn’t his. So he hung around the Sumner Community Food Bank until it opened about 20 minutes later, and he handed the treasure bag to a volunteer who cracked the door for him at 7:30 a.m. The volunteer initially thought it was food and weighed the package, as is routine for all food donations. She quickly realized that something was amiss and called police. Inside were neat stacks of $20 and $100 bills.

Sumner police showed up, took possession of the money and opened an investigation.

The food bank’s security camera was not functioning properly to provide evidence. Investigators checked with nearby police departments, looked into any robberies in the area, and checked for suicidal people who might have withdrawn a large sum. They came up empty, Police Chief Brad Moericke told The Post.

Last week, after the required 90 days had passed and without anyone claiming the loot, police gave it back to the food bank in a ceremony in which they also presented Booth with a citizen citation.

“Not every citizen would be as honest as you in this situation,” Moericke told him, according to The News Tribune.

Sumner police officer Marcus McDonald said that he and many other officers know Booth to be a good guy who sometimes hangs out with a rough crowd. To protect him, the food bank decided it will give him gift cards over time rather than a lump sum of cash as a reward.

Food bank director Anita Miller said she and other volunteers at the food bank have known Booth for years. She said he lives in a tent in nearby woods and has turned down her offers of shelter.

“We’ll be able to get coats or shoes for him,” Miller said. “He will not take a room and board; he turns down inside living.”

Miller said the windfall will go toward buying a walk-in refrigerator and freezer for a planned expansion of the food bank, which serves about 1,000 people a month.