Leanne Ness and Teaerica Rangel took an afternoon walk in Lincoln Park earlier this summer, and as 13-year-old girls sometimes do, they decided to break the rules.
"We weren't supposed to be by the river, but we went anyways," Teaerica said.
The pair wandered down to the Red, which borders the Grand Forks park, and next to a boat ramp, they spotted two pillowcases. Curious, they looked inside.
"And we were like, "Oh my God!'" Teaerica said.
Fifteen hundred dollars in $100 bills, jewelry, some Canadian currency, saving bonds and personal documents had been abandoned a few yards from the water.
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"Why is this down here? What happened? Is everyone OK?" Teaerica wondered.
Leanne called her mom, Marie Hanson, and told her what they'd found. Hanson thought it was a joke. "She's like, 'This can't be real. You're lying,'" Leanne said.
Leanne's mom showed up and learned it wasn't a prank.
"I've never seen that much money before," Hanson said.
The girls said they thought about keeping the cash. Though really, what would a teenage girl do with all that money?
"Shop till I drop or give it to my dad, so we can finally build a garage," Leanne said.
The right thing
On their own, the girls decided to follow the rules and call the police.
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"We thought if that was us and we had a bad time and we really did need the money, we'd probably want it back," Teaerica said.
The girls' decision earned them the recognition of the Grand Forks Police Department which held an awards ceremony Wednesday and presented them with Citizen Appreciation plaques.
Clearly beaming, Teaerica's mom, Tesserae Eley, and Hanson snapped photos of their girls with the police chief and the mayor. Eley, a single mom, said Teaerica's good deed bucks the stereotype that kids in single-parent homes end up in trouble.
"It is a big deal when you get them to do the right thing," she said.
Following the girls' discovery, officers figured out the loot belonged to a person whose home had been burglarized, and the items were returned. The thief or thieves have not been caught, and the investigation continues, Lt. Jim Remer said.
But why would burglars dump their plunder, especially cash? Hanson said the police told her that one motivation might have been that the money was old which could have aroused suspicion when trying to use it.
