Family Stop to Pick Up Trash Bags Discarded on Highway, Find $1M inside

A Virginia family who thought they we're cleaning up the highway became accidental — and temporary — millionaires.

David and Emily Schantz were driving through Caroline County on Saturday when their pick-up truck accidentally hit a bag left in the middle of the road.

The car in front of them had managed to swerve and avoid it, but they couldn't — and when they ran accidentally ran over the bag, they stopped to throw what they thought was trash in the back of their truck.

They also scooped up a second bag, 15 feet down the road, and threw it in the back too.

It wasn't until hours later when they got home and looked inside did they realize they had been driving around with a million dollars in the back.

"Inside of the bag there was little packages, that were little plastic bags... they were addressed on the front of them 'cash vault'," Emily told WTVR.

They contacted the Caroline County Sheriff's Office, which dispatched deputies to the home. A count of the cash determined it was just shy of seven figures.

Investigators determined the bags belonged to the postal service, and the money inside belonged to bank holding company BB&T; they do not yet know, however, how the cash ended up in the middle of the road.

"They found out they'd been riding around all day with almost a million dollars in the truck," said Caroline Sheriff's Maj. Scott Moser.

"To have someone so honest, and just go and give that million dollars back, it's just exceptional on their part. We're just very proud of them, they really represented this county well by being so honest."

Emily joked her husband wasn't too pleased about handing it over: "He said 'man this is a cruel joke... you find a bag of money and gotta give it back!'"

But she insisted: "You do the right thing and return it, because it doesn't belong to us."

Maj. Moser said he hopes the family at least get a reward for their honesty.

"Their actions deserve nothing less," he said. "They saved someone a lot of money and set a wonderful example for everyone else."

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