Next time you drop cash in public, it might be best to treat it like a fumbled football and maintain possession.
A South Florida woman named Rutha Mae Facyson dropped $29 in a Home Depot in Sunrise on Monday, according to police, but before she could pick it up off the ground a man allegedly claimed "Finders, keepers!" and ran off to buy crack cocaine.
Facyson told police she and another witness chased 56-year-old Michael Jody Futerman to his car, but he threw it in reverse and struck her in the leg as he fled Home Depot. The pair were able to provide a license plate number to police, who shortly tracked Futerman down at his Lauderhill home.
But officers weren't fast enough. When they arrived, put a wriggling Futerman in handcuffs, and found a vial of crack cocaine in his pocket, he reportedly admitted he'd already spent $20 on the drugs.
When asked if he saw the female yelling at him, he stated that he did and that she was standing by the car and stated to him, "That's my $29." The defendent advised that he responded to the victim "Finders Keepers"... [and] admitted traveling from the incident location to the area of NW 19th Street in Lauderhill where he purchased cocaine using $20 of the $29.
Police say Futerman then claimed the remaining $9 was in the console of his car, but only $3 was recovered.
Unsurprisingly, the "finders keepers" policy doesn't excuse those who take off with found cash. A Philadelphia woman was charged with a misdemeanor in April after grabbing $2,300 of cash dropped by a man in a supermarket checkout line. The man was planning to use the money to put down a payment on a car, but 28-year-old Stephanie Paparo, who told police she had fallen on hard times, spent the money on her three children and covered overdue rent.
It doesn't work under British law, either. In June, an opportunistic finder made off with approximately $1,600 in an envelope dropped by a man in a Crawley value store. Though the man returned just a minute later when he realized he'd dropped the cash and the whole snatch-and-run was caught on camera, the female suspect wasn't found.
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