Most people would consider him to be an honest hero.
But when Robert Adams, 54, handed in to police $17,000 he found in a bag on the street in Midlothian, Chicago, he ended up being fined on Wednesday.
Police complained that he had handed the cash in at the wrong station and gave the gave a different location as to where it had been found.
Mr Adams found the clear plastic bag full of notes earlier this month hidden inside a bag on the sidewalk next to a Walgreens ATM, police said.
Mr Adams said he was craving an ice-cold drink after finishing his shift as a stationary engineer at a Northwest Side hospital, but not having enough money to buy the burrito, he stopped at a nearby ATM.
At first he thought someone was playing a trick when he saw the plastic bag filled with money lying next to a news box in a suburban strip mall.
A less honest passer-by might have discreetly carried away the notes, hoping that nobody would notice.
But good Samaritan Mr Adams said he took the bag to a nearby bank where staff said it didn’t belong to them.
He then loaded the package into his car and drove the 30 miles to another bank in Rolling Meadows.
Mr Adams lives just two miles from the Chase Bank in Rolling Meadows and is more familiar with the staff there.
He later told police that the money had been discovered outside a newspaper stand in Rolling Meadows.
But to his surprise, Mr Adams was fined $500 for filing a false police report. Officers who checked CCTV footage realised that the money had actually been discovered in Midlothian.
Mr Adams said that he felt more comfortable turning the cash in to Rolling Meadows officials and filing the report with Rolling Meadows police.
‘I know now a little better than I knew then,’ he told the Chicago Tribune. ‘I feel very badly and understand why I should have told the truth.’
Adams said it was a hot day and wanted to get home as quickly as possible.
‘I wasn’t looking for a reward. I was just doing the right thing,’ he said. ‘I accept the fine. I’m very sorry about this whole thing.’
