Published: December 09, 2006 12:26 am            

Honesty does pay off

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Honesty and patience have paid off for a maintenance worker who is to receive $10,000 he found in 1996 at Brigham Young University.

The employee, who was not identified, discovered the money in two pipes while working at BYU’s Harold B. Lee Library.

The man gave the cash to campus police, but the owner has never been found. Property not claimed after three months must be disposed, under Utah law, but police believed the money was suspicious and warranted a longer investigation.

“This just had the feel of fruits of a crime,” Lt. Arnold Lemmon said.

He made one last attempt last month to find the owner. State law requires police to print a legal notice in a newspaper and allow eight days for someone to come forward.

Lemmon took one call about the money, but the story didn’t match. So the BYU employee will be given the cash.

“It was a man who was extremely honest,” Lemmon said. “He never thought it would be returned to him.”

        

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