TORONTO – Sometimes you just get lucky on your afternoon commute. Maybe you get a green light at every intersection, or your favourite song comes on the radio.
Or maybe an armoured truck accidentally opens and spills cash all over the highway.
Ok, that’s not exactly common (or strictly speaking, legal – more on that in a moment). But it was a reality for drivers on Interstate 20 near Weatherford, Texas this past Friday.
Weatherford Police say they started getting calls around 3:00 p.m. saying drivers were stopping along I-20 to scoop up handfuls of cash, a scene captured on cellphone video by a driver who happened to be on the interstate at the time.
“There was a lot of money flowing around there. Some people had handfuls and it was all crumpled up,” Aldrige told the CBS News affiliate in Dallas, Texas. “It looked like an Easter egg hunt. They were bent over picking up stuff.”
Police now say the side door of a Brinks armoured car opened as the vehicle was driving westbound down the highway, spilling an unknown – but sizeable – amount of cash on the highway.
The literal windfall of cash caused an impromptu – and dangerous – scramble for cash as drivers pulled over to help themselves to some loot, shutting down traffic on the interstate.
“At one point, the interstate had shut down because there were so many people stopped and picking up money,” said Villareal.
Now Brinks and Weatherford Police are warning anyone who may have scooped up some of the fallen cash to return the money, or face possible criminal prosecution.
“That money belongs to the Brinks armoured car company and any money that is picked up and not turned into Brinks or the Weatherford Police Department, a criminal prosecution could ensue,” said Weatherford Police Commander Ronnie Villareal.
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