Windfall Leads to Big Trouble in No Country For Old Men

Finding an abandoned stash of $2 million in cash might sound like a dream come true to most people. But for Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin, in the Best Picture nominated Miramax (DIS) movie No Country for Old Men, finding that windfall results in a nightmarish game of mouse and cat. Bloodthirsty Anton Chigurh, played by Best Supporting Actor nominee Javier Bardem, has a tracking device in with his lost money.

“‘Finders keepers’ doesn’t really apply in real life,” says Morris Armstrong a financial planner in Danbury, CT—tracking device or not. The fictional Llewelyn should have done in the right thing, says Armstrong. “You may not want to, but legally you have to suck it up, be honest and go to the police department.”

Actually, that depends—on how much you find and in what state you happen to find it. “Each state calls their laws or statutes something different,” says Nancy Gable, a property officer at the Menlo Park Police department in California. The basic concept is the same in every state but the dollar amounts vary. All states have their own set limits for when you have to alert the police.” In California, that threshold is any amount more than $250. In New York, it is any amount more than $20. (The New York Law of Finders statute also states if you find lost property worth less than $20 you must make a reasonable effort to find the true owner. If after one year you cannot find the owner then the property becomes yours.)

Either way, if the cash found might be considered significant, Gable says, involving the police is important. If you do not make an effort and the found treasure is indeed judged to be of significant value, the police searching for the lost windfall may charge you with stealing. Or, a Javier Bardem searching for the same windfall could leave you in trouble so bad you wish the police got to you first…

Found treasures, long forgotten, still follow a similar pattern. “There have been plenty of stories of files with stock certificates found in old file cabinets that were trashed or sold as used office furniture,” says Terry Savage, a financial advisor in Chicago. “There’s the ‘moral’ question of ‘finders-keepers.’” If you can reasonably know who owned the property–if there's an address in the wallet you find, then it’s generally accepted that you have a moral responsibility to give it back, and make every effort to do so.”

And, for those of us who skip the moral questions, like, say, Llewelyn? What’s the best way to invest a windfall of $2 million in found "anonymous" money? Says Savage: “That's not the kind of investment advice I should be giving.”