Albuquerque Man Finds $135K Next To ATM And Turns It In To Police

A 19-year old Albuquerque man has been honored for turning in a total of $135K that he found next to a Wells Fargo ATM.

Jose Nuñez Romaniz was on a mission to buy socks for his grandfather. He’d just helped him find the right ones online, and needed to make a deposit to make the purchase.

Here’s more from CNN:

The 19-year-old Nuñez just needed to deposit money into his bank account to make the online purchase. When he tried, he made an astonishing find — and what he did next has earned him praise and a bit of fame in New Mexico’s most populous city.

Nuñez drove to an ATM outside a Wells Fargo bank branch Sunday morning just two minutes from his Albuquerque home to make his deposit.

As he pulled his truck alongside the machine, he spotted a clear plastic bag on the ground. It was a “foot-long stack” of $50 and $20 bills, he said.

Nuñez said he never considered keeping the cash — but all sorts of wild thoughts raced through his mind. Was this some kind of trick? Was someone going to pull up behind him and kidnap him?

Nuñez called Albuquerque police. Two officers arrived, and the teenager handed over the money.

The officers counted the cash back at their station: It totaled $135,000.

According to Albuquerque police, the money was mistakenly left beside the ATM by a bank subcontractor that was meant to fill the machine with cash.

Albuquerque police understand the money was mistakenly left outside the ATM by a bank subcontractor that was meant to supply the machine with cash, Officer Simon Drobik said.

Nuñez, a college student who lives at home and helps his parents take care of his two younger siblings, said his family comes from “humble beginnings.”

“My parents always taught me to work for my own. Stolen money would never last you any time,” Nuñez recalled his mother and father teaching him.

City officials reward him Thursday in a ceremony outside Albuquerque’s police academy.

The police chief presented him with a plaque, and has invited Nuñez — a Central New Mexico Community College student who intends to study criminal justice — to apply for a job as a public service aide at the police department.

Albuquerque ESPN Radio 101.7 FM presented him with some signed sports memorabilia that the station had — including a football autographed by former NFL and University of New Mexico linebacker Brian Urlacher.

The radio station threw in six season tickets for UNM football, said station president Joe O’Neill, who had heard about Nuñez’s story from a police acquaintance.

And at least three local businesses presented Nuñez with $500 each, with one of them — a restaurant — adding a $100 gift card, O’Neill said.

Nuñez’s parents immigrated from Mexico in the late 1990s. They once worked in farm fields picking onions. His father also spent years working as a dishwasher, cook and in construction. Now the family operates a small mattress sales business.

Nuñez just finished his first collegiate year. His childhood dream is to work as a crime scene investigator.

Nuñez said he called his mother right after he contacted police Sunday. Albuquerque police officers went to the family’s home and praised him to his parents.

“She told me I did the right thing and that she was proud of me,” Nuñez said. “She called me and almost started crying.

It’s great to know that there are still honest people in the world.

What would y’all have done if you found $135K? Leave us a comment.