Man awarded unclaimed $15K he found on street
MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> A man who found more than $15,000 in Upper Darby last year was on Monday granted rights to the unclaimed property.
Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Charles Burr II ordered the return of $15,200 from the Upper Darby Police Department to Robert Tracey, who found the money on his way home from work on March 7, 2016. Tracey had filed a civil suit in September to retain ownership of the cash.
While he was driving home from work around 11:45 p.m. on southbound State Road, Tracey saw an unattended package in the middle of the road near Anderson Avenue. He turned around to get what turned out to be a banker’s bag and found stacks of cash in bank wrapping along with some drug paraphernalia with it, making the circumstances as to the procurement of the money and its whereabouts suspicious. Tracey called the police and met with a dispatched officer who then took possession of the cash. The police department has been in custody of the money since, with the other contents destroyed.
According to the initial petition filing with Delaware County Common Pleas Court, Tracey was advised around March 8 that the money would be returned to him in 90 days if the owner did not come forward to claim it. No one had come forward to rightfully claim the property, according to Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood.
“As such, because plaintiff found the money, he can claim superior title to the money over the police department,” read a part of the filing petition.
Common Pleas Judge Kathryann W. Durham had previously ordered the return of property to Tracey on Dec. 5, but the order was vacated one week later.
“He should have had that money a month afterward,” said Chitwood when reached for comment on the case. “He was an honest man, he could have driven off with it … I don’t have a problem with him having the money. No one claimed the money, or it has not been requested.”
Michael Puppio, whose firm Raffaele Puppio represented Tracey in the case, declined comment.