Money found in Ohio house's walls no treasure
MJKolodziej
CLEVELAND (Map, News) - In the end, a contractor who found $182,000 in
Depression-era currency hidden in bathroom walls got just a few thousand
dollars and, he feels, some vindication.
The discovery amounted to little more than grief for Bob Kitts, who couldn't
agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.
It didn't help Reece's financial situation either. She testified in a
deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and a bank recently
foreclosed on one of her properties.
As for the 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne - a wealthy businessman who
stashed money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness,
only to have it divvied up decades later in a similar economic climate -
they'll each get a fraction of the find.
"I called it the greed case," said attorney Gid Marcinkevicius, who
represents the Dunne estate.
"If these two individuals had sat down and resolved their disputes and
divided the money, the heirs would have had no knowledge of it. Because they
were not able to sit down and divide it in a rational way they both lost."
Kitts would later call his discovery "the ultimate contractor fantasy."
He was tearing out the bathroom walls of an 83-year-old home near Lake Erie
on a spring day in 2006 when he discovered two green metal lockboxes
suspended by a wire below the medicine chest. Inside were white envelopes
with the return address for "P. Dunne News Agency."
"I ripped the corner off of one," Kitts said during a deposition in a
lawsuit filed by Dunne's estate. "I saw a 50 and got a little dizzy."
He called Reece, who had hired him for a remodeling project, at work. She
got there within 45 minutes.
They counted the cash, piled it on the dining room table and posed for
photographs. Both grinned like lottery jackpot winners holding an oversized
check.
But how to share? She offered 10 percent. He wanted 40 percent. From there
things went sour.
A month after The Plain Dealer reported on the case in December 2007,
Dunne's estate sued, claiming the rights to the money.
By then there was little left to claim.
Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to
Hawaii with her mother and sold some of the rare late 1920s bills on eBay
and to a coin dealer. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in
her closet, but testified that she never reported the theft to police.
Kitts said Reece accused him of stealing the money and that she began
leaving him threatening phone messages. Marcinkevicius doesn't believe the
money was stolen but said he couldn't prove otherwise.
After Reece dropped her claim to the remaining $25,230, Cuyahoga County
Probate Magistrate Charles Brown last month gave Kitts 13.7 percent and the
rest to Dunne's heirs.
If the currency is sold at an appraised value of $38,592, Kitts will get
$5,287 and each of the 21 heirs will receive $1,586. Heir Mary Curtis, who
testified in court about her uncle's wealth, did not return a phone call
seeking comment.
Brown reasoned $157,000 would belong to the heirs because it was found in
envelopes bearing Dunne's name.
About $25,000 was found in cardboard boxes with no identification in another
bathroom wall. Brown determined that that money would belong to the property
owner, Reece, but since she dropped her claim Kitts should get the money
because he found it.
Reece didn't keep the money from the two finds separate, so Brown decided to
split the remaining $25,230 on a prorated basis.
Reece, a mortgage loan officer, testified in a deposition that she's buried
in debt, in part because of the real estate meltdown. She's loaded with
credit card debt, and properties she bought in 2003 and 2004, near the peak
of the real estate boom, have lost value.
A bank foreclosed on a Cleveland house she owns with $60,750 due on a
$62,300 mortgage that she took out a week after the money was found.
Reece's phone number has been disconnected, and her attorney Robert Lazzaro
did not return a phone call seeking comment. There were no court records
showing that Reece had filed for bankruptcy.
Kitts' contractor business finally has picked up again. He said he lost a
lot of business because media reports on the case portrayed him as greedy.
He said he feels vindicated by the court's decision to give him a share.
"I was not the bad guy that everybody made me out to be," Kitts said in an
interview. "I didn't do anything wrong."
He's often asked why he didn't keep his mouth shut and pocket the money. He
simply answers that he wasn't raised that way.
"It was a neat experience, something that won't happen again," Kitts said.
"In that regard, it was pretty fascinating; seeing that amount of money in
front of you was breathtaking. In that regard, I don't regret it.
"The threats and all - that's the part that makes you wish it never
happened."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. oops
Lorrie S.
taken the boxes and not said a word.
"MJKolodziej" <mjmwcsREMOV...@htcomp.net> wrote in message
news:gf4i68$jdp$1...@registered.motzarella.org...
Frank Provasek
> the contractor was an idiot for not keeping his mouth shut. He should have
> taken the boxes and not said a word.
>
That is theft, plain and simple. Anything in that house belongs to
the homeowner.
----
Frank Provasek Rare Coins
http://www.frankcoins.com Ebay FRANKCOINS
Member ANA, Texas Numismatic Assoc, Texas Coin Dealers Assoc,
PCGS, NGC, & ANACS authorized dealer, Texas Auctioneer Lic 11259
RF
"Frank Provasek" <fr...@frankcoins.com> wrote in message
news:e994236a-3136-4e19...@c36g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
On Nov 8, 8:03 pm, "Lorrie S." <lorriem...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> the contractor was an idiot for not keeping his mouth shut. He should
>> have
>> taken the boxes and not said a word.
>That is theft, plain and simple. Anything in that house belongs to the
>homeowner.
Hey Fwankie, how much longer before you start trolling using Helen
Wallace's name again?
mazorj
"RF" <R...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:gf9afa$36g$1...@registered.motzarella.org...
Speaking of trolling under a nom de web, where has Voltronicus been
lately?
note.boy
"Frank Provasek" <fr...@frankcoins.com> wrote in message
news:e994236a-3136-4e19...@c36g2000prc.googlegroups.com...
I though that Americans didn't do irony but Frank has proved me wrong.
Billy
note.boy
"mazorj" <maz...@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:CW_Rk.560$mi4...@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
Perhaps his bridge collapsed on top of him, hopefully, I have 420 names in
my fill file, is this a record? Billy
RF
news:lV%Rk.59476$s62....@newsfe01.ams2...
>I have 420 names in my fill file, is this a record? Billy
Yep, a record for blustering stupidity.
note.boy
"RF" <R...@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:gfa8ou$ukq$1...@registered.motzarella.org...
Nick Knight
at 10:10 PM, "note.boy" <note...@naespamntlworld.com> said:
>Now 421. Billy
Yeah, he fooled me for a single post. I actually saw something
intelligent-seeming from his email. However, the second post clarified that
I was dealing with the same old thing. I've adjusted and refined the twit
pattern, and as you and others do too, we'll get back to some form of
"normal".
Nick