Feel Good News of The Day: Man Finds $140,000, Turns It In To Police

Struggling landscaper Eli Estrada found a bag filled with $140,000 cash on the street and instead of keeping it and paying off his debt, he turned it into police. Estrada was quoted saying "I think I was nuts!"

Estrada could have used the sack full of money to pay off his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business Tuff Turf but said that turning the money into police was just the right thing to do.

The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong."

The Bank of American bag was lost on March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The bills were unmarked and stacked in wads of $20,000 each and were supposed to be headed for ATMs. Long Beach Sgt. Dina Zapalski said Estrada gave the bag to a police officer who took the reported at one of his landscaping job sites. Zapalski said this is the first time that she can remember anyone ever turning in that amount of cash.

"I've had people come to me with purses and wallets with cash in it and they'll turn it in," Zapalski told the Los Angeles Times. "But not like this."

Brinks paid Estrada a $2,000 rewards for returning the bag. His mother told the Times she thought "They should have given him 10 percent." Estrada said "I feel I did the right thing, I'm going to earn money the old-fashioned way... I'm gonna earn it." Contact Tuff Turf and hire this guy if you can. The rewards given to Estrada does seem very low being that he could have kept the unmarked money and most likely never been caught. Brinks probably could have written the lost money off as an insurance claim, right? For Estrada, I'm sure the real reward will come for him later in life when he gets to look back and know that he did the right thing. Bravo Eli!