Pennies from Loomis!

By J. Thomas Duffy

Well, actually, a lot more than pennies ...

Try about $160,000!

You gotta love stories like this, and it comes with a h/t to Maria Stuart over at Open Salon:

It’s raining dead presidents in Detroit

It’s been a week since motorists and passersby competed with armored truck crews and police for money that landed like litter along the I-75/Chrysler freeway in Detroit.

It was about 8:30 a.m. on June 11 when a Loomis armored car transporting an unknown amount of cash lost part of its load, reportedly newly printed $20 and $100 bills. No one’s yet sure how it happened. The freeway was closed for about an hour as Loomis crews and police recovered as much of the cash as they could.

But they had competition. According to news reports, dozens of motorists and passersby scrambled along the freeway to grab up as much money as they could.

In the end, there’s $160,000 missing.

The Detroit News called it a "Freeway Lottery," "as dozens of drivers stopped to compete with Loomis guards in scooping up scads of cash lying on the roadway and in the waist-high grass leading to the service drive."

Stuart's post goes on to say that Loomis offered a 10% reward for any money returned, which was accompanied by the club-in-hand threat of prosecution for those that don't.

Yeah, good luck with that one, Loomis.

Especially when you read the ClickonDetroit story:

Police are also looking at surveillance video from cameras mounted along I-75, in hopes of figuring out who took the cash.

"Any monies that are lost are obviously guaranteed by Loomis to the people who own them," said Loomis spokesman Pat Flaharty.

One driver told Local 4 that police were picking up the cash, otherwise she might have tried to pick up some bills.

Take it away, Louie!

Louis Prima - Pennies from the Heaven




(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)