A Goodwill in South Louis is trying to find the rightful owner of a $14,000 donation. But it won’t be easy. So far, 15 people have come forward saying that they accidentally donated the money.
KSDK News reports that MERS Goodwill found $14,000 inside a box filled with Christmas donations. The people at Goodwill figured that the money was donated by accident and have been trying to return it to the rightful owner. But once the mistake was made public, the Goodwill has been flooded with calls from different people asking to have their money back.
MERS Goodwill CEO Lewis Chartock said at least 15 people have claimed to be the rightful owners of the money. Chartock said that he was able to discredit several of the claims (some didn’t know the location of the store) but others seem to genuinely believe that they donated the money by accident. Chartock said that the $14000 Goodwill donation could belong to three parties. The couple who delivered the donations, a woman who says that a box was accidentally mixed in with her donations, and another woman “who calls every day in tears, sure it’s her money.”
Chartock said that he’s turning the matter over to the St. Louis County Court.
Chartock said: “It’s in the hands of our lawyer who will talk to the court and figure out what to do.”
Chartock added that accidentally cash donations aren’t uncommon. The Goodwill CEO told STL Today :
“Elderly people who sometimes want to make sure there is cash around (the house) hide it in their houses and they don’t tell anybody that they hid it. It’s kinda stashed. And then when they die, nobody knows (about the money). Very often, the money is inadvertently donated to the Goodwill…. In all fairness, when somebody does that by mistake, we want them to have their money back,” he said. “In no way does Goodwill have any interest in keeping the money.”