Saturday, April 7, 2018, was a fairly typical day in Southwest Colorado. The temperature rose to about 74 degrees in Durango. A brush fire raged near Towaoc. The Bayfield High School baseball team beat Cortez in a doubleheader. Two women were injured while climbing northeast of Durango.
If you don’t remember the day, ask yourself this: Did you lose a large sum of money about that time?
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office says it recovered a large sum of money on that day, but so far, it hasn’t been able to return the money to its rightful owner. The Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone who thinks he or she lost an undisclosed amount of money on or about that date somewhere in La Plata County to come forward.
It is part of a “reasonable” new policy the agency adopted this week for returning money that has been turned over to law enforcement, Sheriff Sean Smith said.
“It’s a decent sum,” he said. “You would think someone who lost that money would be contacting law enforcement.”
The sheriff declined to give information relating to where the money was found or how much it was; the hope is to use that information to confirm the identity of the person who lost it.
The concept came up when an evidence technician emailed Smith asking about the money, which had been in the evidence locker for more than a year.
Smith said he realized the agency didn’t have a policy about returning cash, so he searched around and found departments typically offer public notices and wait somewhere between 90 and 180 days for someone to claim it.
“We’re a little late to the public notice,” Smith said. “If they lost money and know when and where they lost it, it’s theirs.”
Anyone who remembers losing a large sum of money more than a year ago can contact the Sheriff’s Office to claim it, Smith said.
bhauff@durangoherald.com
To claim money
The La Plata County Sheriff’s Office says an undisclosed amount of money was found April 7, 2018. If the money is yours, call 382-7077 with the total lost and the location where it was lost to retrieve it.
