No one claims $500,000 stash in truck

When security guards at the Beaver Valley Power Station discovered a bag containing thousands of dollars in a tractor-trailer cab, one of the vehicle's occupants told them his boss planned to use the cash to buy a truck.

It must have been some truck.

State police said the bag, which guards spotted on Tuesday while conducting a routine search of the tractor-trailer at the entrance to the nuclear power plant, contained 10 plastic-wrapped bundles of cash totaling $504,230.

Police later seized the money and bag after a dog trained to detect drugs sniffed and reacted to the bag, indicating contact with controlled substances.

The truck driver and passenger, whose names were withheld but who are from Texas, were released without charges because no apparent crime had been committed.

State police were investigating to determine who owns the money and how it got into the tractor-trailer. If no one comes forward to claim legitimate ownership of the money, police said, they will begin proceedings for forfeit of the cash to the government.

"I wanted to know, why is somebody running around with that amount of money when they're not in a Brink's truck?" said Shippingport police Sgt. R.N. Davis Jr., who pulled the truck over after it left the power plant in Beaver County.

Investigators also notified the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, but said they do not believe the money or truckers are linked to workers or activities at the plant.

"Most likely, they were just between runs," said Trooper Jonathan Bayer. "The investigation is continuing, but there is no indication that there is any connection to the power plant."

The truckers worked for a company hired by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., which is performing construction work and replacing equipment at the plant, said Richard Wilkins, spokesman for plant owner First Energy Nuclear Operating Co.

The name of the company was not released, but police said the truckers had come from Chicago and were making a scheduled stop to pick up and transport containers of tools to Youngstown, Ohio.

The white semi-truck and empty flatbed trailer pulled up to the plant entrance about 4:15 p.m. Plant security officers told them every vehicle entering the plant must be searched and obtained permission to do so, police said.

In the search, the officers found a green, blue and black duffel bag with a padlock in the sleeper berth of the cab, Trooper Bayer said. The truckers didn't have a key for the lock, so guards cut it off and spotted cash inside, he said.

The truckers said the money wasn't theirs and they didn't know how it got there, Trooper Bayer said. In court papers filed to obtain a search warrant, state police said one of the truckers told security officers that "it was their [boss's] money and he was going to buy a truck with it."

But when the security workers called the truckers' boss in Houston, he also said he knew nothing about the money. The security officers called police, but the truckers backed out of the plant and drove off.

"There's nothing [in the law] that says you can't carry a lot of cash around with you. It's just a little unusual," Mr. Wilkins said. "Any kind of unusual or suspicious activity, or even a person who's acting a little suspiciously, whether they've broken a law or tried to do something that was against the regulations on site, would be reported."

Police broadcast a description of the truck and Sgt. Davis pulled it over after spotting it on Route 168 south, near the Shippingport Bridge. He said the truckers were polite, but the passenger had no identification and said it had been stolen from the truck the night before.

"Your ID is stolen but not that bag of cash? Red flags were popping up all over," Sgt. Davis said.

State police also arrived and obtained a warrant to search the truck. They said the cash was packed in bundles of $50,000, each containing 10 packets of $5,000 in mostly $20 bills but also $100, $50 and $10 bills. The bundles were tightly compressed and wrapped in silver tape and plastic, but their contents could be seen.

"I picked the bag up with one hand and then said 'Whoa.' It had to weigh a good 60 pounds," Sgt. Davis said. "I told the state police, 'This is all yours.' I said [there is] no way I'm counting this all night."