ATM-filling workers forget bag of $141,000 on a lawn

MAHWAH, N.J., July 28 (UPI) -- New Jersey authorities are searching for a man who walked off with $141,000 accidentally left on a lawn by workers refilling ATMs.

Mahwah police said surveillance video from Monday morning shows the bag of $10 and $20 bills being left on the lawn of a client by employees of ATMForUs.com before they drove away in a vehicle.

"At some point, the person who was supposed to have the bag realized that it wasn't in the car with him, but at that point, he was seven miles away so he called back to the office to see if it was still at the curbside where he had left it," Mahwah Police Officer William Hunt told CBS New York.

The video shows a white GMC Savana work van pass by the bag a few minutes later and then return, with a passenger exiting the vehicle and taking the bag of cash.

Police Chief James Batelli said surveillance footage from elsewhere in the area showed the same van pull up to an automotive repair business and passengers made off with several tires from a fenced-in area.

"It was really just a stroke of luck, or misfortune, for them that this van happened to be driving by shortly after the money was left at the curb," Hunt said.

Police are pleading for the money's return.

"Anytime you find property that's discarded on the side of the road, it's not just fair game for you to pick it up and say, 'Well, you left it, I found it,'" Hunt said.