Stolen safe and money bag found

PALMER -- A safe and about half of the cash stolen from the Mat-Su Home Builders Association's annual home show turned up last month in a pile of donations left for the Bishop's Attic second-hand store in Palmer. Janet Smith and Rick Espen were sorting donations at the store when they found the safe and a bank deposit bag inside a large plastic garbage bag.

"I picked up the bag and it was kind of odd, because it was really small but heavy," Smith said.

Normally, Smith would find a large bag that was stuffed with clothes and heavy. Smaller bags tend to be light, she said.

"I said 'oh, here's a bank bag, I hope they left me some money,'" Smith said.

They did. About $1,200 out of $2,200 in missing money was in the bag. It was made up of some checks written to the Home Builders Association and some cash.

What would you do?

There's options and rationalizations: finder's-keepers, possession-is-nine-tenths, and he-who-has-the-gold come to mind. But at the Bishop's Attic grade-school common law isn't the sort of thing the employees and volunteers think about, or answer to.

"I didn't think about that, and I don't think Rick [Espen] did either. You know we would jokingly tease about it …" Smith said.

In fact, it's not unheard of to find money with the donations. Smith said that when cash is found -- most likely a coin in a sofa or a dollar in a purse -- it goes to local charities just like the money people spend buying used clothing or household goods at Bishop's Attic. But unlike those modest treasures, Smith and Espen knew the bank bag had owners. They went to store manager Janet Crook. They called the Palmer police when they were unable to reach the Home Builders Association.

"They went to the police, which is really cool of them," the association's executive director Emma Markley said.

But what of the thieves? Did someone have a change of heart and try to do the right thing? Was the anonymous drop-off at Bishop's Attic a confession or, perhaps, a plea for forgiveness?

Officer Shayne LaCroix of Palmer PD doesn't think so. He was asked him if he thought the home show thieves did the right thing.

"I would disagree, because of the amount that was recovered," LaCroix said. "Part of it was a locked safe and most of the money that was recovered was in that locked safe."

LaCroix said that he has forwarded charges against two adult suspects to the Palmer District Attorney's office. Lacroix said he couldn't report the names of his suspects because formal charges have not yet been pressed.