Father, son find $6,000, return it to charity

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JACKSON (AP) - Dan Chapdelaine and his son, Wyatt, often play a game of spotting discarded items alongside the road, but they hardly could have guessed the value of a bag they picked up along U.S. 89 recently.

It contained $6,000 cash.

Wyatt, 10, wasn't tempted to keep the cash. "He basically said, 'We've got to figure out whose it is,"' Chapdelaine said.

As it turned out, they found the money just a few minutes after Joni and Rob Weed lost it. It was part of nearly $14,000 generated by the Shrine Club over a weekend of Calcutta betting on chariot racing.

The proceeds are donated to Salt Lake Shrine Hospital, which offers free orthopedic care for children.

The Weeds believe they left the bag on top of their car while they drove to the races Feb. 15.

While they were on the road, Rob Weed heard a rattling noise on the roof and stopped - finding an empty cash drawer. They fruitlessly searched the car for the deposit bag and concluded that it had been on top of the drawer.

"The only thing in the whole car that was of any value was that deposit bag and that's what we lost," Joni Weed said. "Of course, I didn't expect in 100 million years that anyone would turn it in."

The Weeds told Sheriff Bob Zimmer, who is the Shrine Club president, what happened. She said they were ready to reimburse the club.

They issued a press release describing the bag.

Beth Chapdelaine heard a radio broadcast about the missing bag Monday morning. "I called dispatch and said, I think I have something you are looking for," she said.

A deputy was sent to retrieve the money.

The couple originally thought the money had less-than-charitable origins. "We thought it was dirty money - there was no question about that," Beth Chapdelaine said. "There was nothing in it but greenbacks."

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