Woman Loses Bag of $12K Cash on Train (not sketchy), MTA Returns the Money and Throw Themselves a Parade

UPI - Rail workers in New York were able to reunite a relieved passenger with her lost backpack containing $12,000 cash.

Juliet Barton said she boarded a Long Island Rail Road train in Babylon, transferred trains at Freeport and eventually arrived at the station in Rockville Centre, where she realized she no longer had the bag containing her cash.

She returned to the station the next morning and Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers searched through a pile of bags recovered from LIRR trains and discovered the conductor of the train Barton had boarded in Babylon had turned in the backpack.

Janno Lieber, chairman and chief executive of the MTA, issued commendations to five workers Thursday for their efforts in reuniting Barton with her lost property.

"Not a single dollar was missing," Lieber said at the ceremony. He said the workers "showed kindness and concern when faced with a passenger who was going through that kind of stressful situation."

Congratulations on doing your job, MTA. You didn't steal this woman's money. Throw yourself a parade. 

I shouldn't be diminishing what MTA was able to accomplish here. I'd imagine they accumulate hundreds of lost bags on a daily basis. To find a single bag is like finding a needle in a haystack. Plus, the MTA doesn't get too many W's. There's not a lot of opportunity for good PR in the transportation industry. Nobody ever thanks you when the trains are on time, but anytime there's the slightest fuck up, some guy named Frank rains hellfire down upon you.

Yes that's technically NJ Transit, but you get my point. You only ever hear about the trains when they fuck up. I still can't help but laugh at the MTA holding a press conference and issuing a reward to their employees for properly using the lost and found. 

But the MTA is completely burying the lede with this story. The real story is this woman who her left her totally legitimate and not at all sketchy bag of $12,000 cash on the train. To be on the train with $12,000 in the first place is a wild move. And if you do have that money with you on the train, how is it not the only thing on your mind from the time you board until the time you step off? That bag should be attached to your body at the wrist + around your belt loop so that when you get up to leave it's physically impossible to leave behind. I'm starting to think if this woman was cavalier enough to forget such a bag, then $12,000 must not mean shit to her. $12,000 might be walking around money for this nice old woman. $12,000 might be walking around money for her.

I'd love to know what the cash was for.  Maybe it was just money from a business that needed to be deposited into the bank. That's a simple, plausible explanation. Or could it be the opposite. She might not trust banks at all. That money could have been going right under her mattress. Have we considered that she might be a stripper, or potentially on her way to the strip club? She doesn't strike me as the strip club type, but you can't always judge a book by it's cover. Of course, it could be drugs as well. That bag could have been the re-up. Meaning she was SUPER fucked had she not gotten it back. Avon would have killed her with his bare hands. Or maybe she runs one of the high rises and gets points on the package. That $12,000 could be her cut. We'll probably never know. 

It's actually encouraging that nobody seems to be asking questions. If I ever lost a large amount of cash, I wouldn't want people snooping around in my business either. What, is it fucking illegal to have stacks? Sorry for being richer than you. Mind your own fucking business.