Baptist student finds $30,000 amid debris

Baptist student finds $30,000 amid debris

After ripping Sheetrock from a moldy closet of a home damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Trista Wright was removing the debris when a flash of green caught her eye.

Wright, on a spring break missions trip to New Orleans, reached into the debris and pulled out an old, grubby $100 bill.

As she dug around in the debris a little more, she discovered that an air-conditioning vent secretly had served as a makeshift safe, and she pulled out another $100 bill, then another and another.

“At first, I thought it was Monopoly money. It was just stacks of $100 bills. The money was very old,” said Wright, who had traveled to New Orleans as part of a Baptist Collegiate Ministries group from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, Ga.

When the students hastily totaled the money, it was more than $30,000. The discovery then presented them with a new problem: “What do we do now?”

After consulting with the leaders of the missions trip, they decided to notify the local authorities.

The sheriff’s department came to the home, verified the identity of the homeowner and learned that the property had been in the family for several generations.

The owner of the home, who wanted to remain anonymous, had inherited the house after her mother died a couple of years ago.

Wright said the woman was not surprised by the find because her mother hid things around her house all the time.

In addition, her father was suspicious of placing money in bank accounts, having grown up in the Depression era.
Even though finding something hidden was not a surprise, the amount the students had found was a shock to the homeowner.

“The lady was speechless,” Wright said. “It was such a blessing to the family. The Lord really blessed the family at the right time because [the owner] had some medical tests done today and was very anxious about the results.”

The collegians’ honesty sparked plenty of media attention, including an Associated Press (AP) article that was picked up across the United States and in numerous countries and a segment on CBS News’ “The Early Show.”

There was never any thought of keeping the money, Wright told the AP. “We were called there to serve people and to be Christ-like.”

Otherwise, “I would have regretted it. Nothing good would have come of it.” (BP)