Home Demolition Reveals Stash of Cash and Generous Heart

One Massachusetts dentist got $2,500 in 50s and big ones as a construction crew he hired tore down the walls of a house he owns. As a worker gutted a portion of the home's walls, money suddenly burst from it like feathers, Boston's WHDH reports.

"I was looking out the window in between patients and the fellow was pulling the wall apart and the next thing I knew I saw a flutter of money," said Dr. Fred Ravens, who had hired the workers to demolish the Reading, Mass., house so that he could expand his office next door.

After helping his workers grab the rest of the money from between the wall's plaster and framing, Ravens immediately gave some of the cash to them.

But the dentist's unselfish response to the situation didn't end there: He quickly reached out to the former homeowners, whom he called "the rightful owners" of the cash.

The owners who had left the cash behind were shocked to hear from Ravens, and said his generosity is "a rare quality."

While Ravens response to the situation may strike some as honorable, the circumstances surrounding similar past discoveries suggest that you may want to proceed with a little more caution if you happen across hidden cash, since you never know whom it might belong to.

Take the case of James "Whitey" Bulger, the infamous Boston mobster, who was recently apprehended and is accused of more than 19 murders. He hid more than $800,000 in the walls of his Santa Monica, Calif. apartment, authorities say, in what might have been a rainy day fund if he needed to skip town.

In that case, it was the police who found the cash after Bulger's arrest, but it's probably wise just to contact authorities if you happen across a money stash. That was what the employers of Jerry LaLiberte decided to do, after the plumber told them about his discovery of $20,000 tucked in an air duct of a Holmes Beach, Fla., home.

The previous homeowner reportedly had a habit of storing cash in the home, and apparently had forgotten to tell her children about at least one of her hiding places before she passed away.