
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 26, 1993                   TAG: 9311260095
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

FINDERS NOT ALWAYS KEEPERS

Authorities have arrested a Virginia couple and recovered some of the $21,500 that a Walnut Cove man lost after he put it on the trunk of his car and then drove off.

John W. Johnson reported to police Sunday that he put the money, which he received in an insurance settlement, in a candy box and set it on the trunk while he put some other items into his car. Forgetting that the box with the money was there, he drove along N.C. 65 to Germanton.

By the time he realized his mistake, the money was gone.

Harley and Louise Griffith of Ridgeway, Va., were arrested Wednesday after authorities received a tip from someone who saw a television report about Johnson's loss.

They were being held in the Henry County Jail on felonious larceny charges, said James W. Joyce, chief deputy of the Stokes County Sheriff's Department.

Joyce said the man who tipped authorities said he was driving Sunday on N.C. 65 near Walnut Cove when he saw a red car parked on the side of the road with its doors open and four people picking up money that was scattered on the road. The man said he stopped and asked the people if they had a problem. They told him no, so he drove on, Joyce said.

Joyce said Officer Jamie Mitchell of the Walnut Cove police also saw the same model red car with a Virginia license tag in town Sunday afternoon. Mitchell wrote the license number down and called to find out to whom the car was registered, Joyce said.

Joyce said that the car was registered to Louise Griffith, and Mitchell identified Junior Griffith as the man who was driving it.

Joyce said $1,700 was recovered at a Lowe's Hardware store in Martinsville. Store employees said the money came from Harley Griffith, who bought a hot tub and some other items Tuesday, Joyce said.

The serial numbers on 17 $100 bills matched the numbers of some of the money Johnson lost. The numbers were provided to First Union National Bank in Walnut Cove, where Johnson cashed his insurance check, by the Federal Reserve.

Joyce said it had not been determined who the other people in the car were or where the rest of the money may be.

Johnson said he could understand someone's temptation to pick up a pile of money on the roadside, but he thinks that most people would want to get it back to its rightful owner.

"It'd be a temptation for anybody," he said. "But I think it would wear on their conscience."

by CNB