CAROLINE COUNTY, Va. -- A Caroline County family discovered nearly one million dollars in cash after running over bags filled with bills while on a Saturday afternoon drive.
Emily Schantz said that she was driving in the car with her family when she noticed the car in front of them swerving around an object in the road.
The object, which turned out to be a bag, was hit by the Schantz family car.
The family, out for a Saturday afternoon drive, thought that someone had left trash in the middle of Broad Street.
The family put the bag, and another bag spotted 15 feet away, in their pick-up truck.
What they did not know was that they were driving around with close to a million dollars in cold hard cash.
"Inside of the bag, there were plastic baggies and they were addressed with something that said ‘cash vault,’" Schantz said.
The Schantzes called Caroline deputies upon making the discovery.
"They came back to Caroline, and found out they'd been riding around with almost a million dollars in the truck," said Maj. Scott Moser.
Deputies are investigating, but believe the mail bags belonged to the postal service and that the money was meant for a bank.
But how they ended up on the side of the road remains a mystery.
Moser paid the family a visit Monday.
"For someone so honest and willing to give that almost a million dollars back, it's exceptional on their part,” said Moser. “Their two sons were there, so I put the lights on for them, but we are proud and they represented this county well by being so honest."
"Do the right thing and return it,” Emily Schantz said. “Because it didn't belong to us."
