chicot60
12-27-2011, 11:26 PM
By Ben Mutzabaugh, USA TODAY
An apparent good Samaritan is in the aviation headlines this week after he returned $10,000 in cash that he found earlier this month while flying through Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport.
Mitch Gilbert of Greenwood Village, Colo., is the man credited with the honest deed. He says he was flying home from Las Vegas when he found two unmarked envelopes bearing the logo of the Caesar's Palace casino and hotel.
"There was $5,000 in each envelope. I just about fell over, I couldn't believe it," Gilbert tells Gannett station KUSA 9 News of Denver.
Despite the obvious temptation to keep the cash, Gilbert says that was never really an option for him.
"If it happened to me I sure would want that back," Gilbert tells KUSA. "I wanted to show my kids the right thing to do. It would have been a lot easier keeping it to be honest with you. But I felt like I had to get it back to the right person."
Still, even that proved to be a challenge.
Gilbert says he made several calls to the Las Vegas airport to see if anyone had reported losing a large amount of cash. Gilbert says that effort was made more difficult since airport officials wouldn't take his contact information.
"They didn't do that. It was against the rules. I just said, 'Well, I'll keep calling back and I'll give it 30 days,' " Gilbert tells WUSA.
About two weeks later, one of Gilbert's calls to the airport finally paid off. An operator acknowledged to Gilbert that a man from El Paso had called to say he had lost two cash-filled envelopes.
According to Gilbert, the operator told him:
Well, this is breaking the rules, but you're trying to do the right thing.
With that, Gilbert was able to return the cash to Ignacio Marquez, who says he won the money gambling but apparently dropped it as he was running to catch a flight.
When contacted by KUSA, Marquez expressed his gratitude for Gilbert's actions.
"Relief is an understatement. Cash money is very difficult to get back. I'm very appreciative to Mitch and his family. You do not find people like this," Marquez tells KUSA.
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/12/las-vegas-airport-cash-found-returned/592266/1
An apparent good Samaritan is in the aviation headlines this week after he returned $10,000 in cash that he found earlier this month while flying through Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport.
Mitch Gilbert of Greenwood Village, Colo., is the man credited with the honest deed. He says he was flying home from Las Vegas when he found two unmarked envelopes bearing the logo of the Caesar's Palace casino and hotel.
"There was $5,000 in each envelope. I just about fell over, I couldn't believe it," Gilbert tells Gannett station KUSA 9 News of Denver.
Despite the obvious temptation to keep the cash, Gilbert says that was never really an option for him.
"If it happened to me I sure would want that back," Gilbert tells KUSA. "I wanted to show my kids the right thing to do. It would have been a lot easier keeping it to be honest with you. But I felt like I had to get it back to the right person."
Still, even that proved to be a challenge.
Gilbert says he made several calls to the Las Vegas airport to see if anyone had reported losing a large amount of cash. Gilbert says that effort was made more difficult since airport officials wouldn't take his contact information.
"They didn't do that. It was against the rules. I just said, 'Well, I'll keep calling back and I'll give it 30 days,' " Gilbert tells WUSA.
About two weeks later, one of Gilbert's calls to the airport finally paid off. An operator acknowledged to Gilbert that a man from El Paso had called to say he had lost two cash-filled envelopes.
According to Gilbert, the operator told him:
Well, this is breaking the rules, but you're trying to do the right thing.
With that, Gilbert was able to return the cash to Ignacio Marquez, who says he won the money gambling but apparently dropped it as he was running to catch a flight.
When contacted by KUSA, Marquez expressed his gratitude for Gilbert's actions.
"Relief is an understatement. Cash money is very difficult to get back. I'm very appreciative to Mitch and his family. You do not find people like this," Marquez tells KUSA.
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post/2011/12/las-vegas-airport-cash-found-returned/592266/1