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Friday, January 10, 2003

By Michael A. Fuoco, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Shortly before noon yesterday, an elderly man walked into the city's East Liberty police station and made an unusual request.

The man asked Sharon Rivers, who was staffing the detective desk, if police could return some money someone had apparently left at his home. She summoned burglary Sgt. James Malloy to assist him.

Malloy was shocked when the man showed him what was inside a paper bag he had carried inside -- $32,500 in neatly stacked bills of all denominations.

Malloy immediately called over Assistant Chief William Mullen.

The man was adamant that the money was not his and that someone had left it in his home. He told Malloy and Mullen that he only wanted it returned to its rightful owner. They soon suspected that the man had some kind of mental infirmity.

Detectives were able to ascertain that the man had an account at PNC Bank. Bank officials discovered that the man had made a series of withdrawals consistent with the amount of money he was carrying in the bag.

Social service agencies were contacted and two burglary detectives took the man to the PNC branch in East Liberty to redeposit the money in his account.