An unemployed carpenter, Wayne Sabaj, reportedly went looking in his backyard garden for fresh vegetables and instead found bags of money worth $150,000.
Sabaj, who lives in McHenry County in Illinois and had no savings, was startled by the discovery and quickly brought the bag inside to show his father, the Chicago Tribune reports. Sabaj had moved in with his father because he is unemployed, MSNBC states.
“I told him, 'We have enough problems, now we got another problem. Look what I found in the garden,' ” Sabaj recalled. “ 'What are we going to do with all this money?' ”
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Sabaj, 49, then did what few in his position probably would: he called the police.
Afraid the money might have been from a bank robbery and he could get arrested if someone found it, Sabaj called the McHenry County Sheriff’s Department.
The authorities came and found a second bag filled with $20 notes. The total discovery is worth about $150,000.
McHenry County Undersheriff Andrew Zinke told the Chicago Daily Herald he suspected the money was from a residential or commercial burglary, though there were no reports of such crimes in the area.
Police are now investigating the incident, processing the bags for fingerprints and checking the bills' serial numbers.
If the police cannot determine whom the money belongs to, they will decide if Sabaj can keep the treasure.
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