Brinks truck spills $11,000, mom of four returns it all

Pat Wesner was driving to work early Tuesday morning when a Brinks truck passed her on route 22, just north of Salem, New York. The truck went over a bump. Suddenly coins and bills were flying everywhere.

The truck had spilled $11,000 — without the driver noticing.

"If you saw how the change hit the ground and sprayed out like a halo with the sunshine, I just went, 'Oh my goodness. It's money.' And again with the dollar bills going all over. It was definitely something out of a movie," Wesner told Fox23 News.

With no one else on the road to notice the cash — "There was nothing, there was nobody, there were no houses, fields on either side of you," Wesner said — the mother of four could have easily pocketed a small fortune.

Instead she called 911. She had picked up all the cash before a trooper arrived.

Wesner, a director of a non-profit museum that struggles financially, told WNYT that the thought of pocketing the cash never crossed her mind.

"It's stealing if you take something that's not yours and i never even thought, you know I picked up a lot of bills that were on the ground and never even thought that I would put anything in my pocket. It didn't belong to me," said Wesner.

Brinks called Wesner to thank her for her honesty — and to offer her a $2,500 reward.

Brinks released the following statement of appreciation:

"It was an amazing act of civic virtue demonstrated by Ms. Wesner to call local police, collect the scattered money and return it to us. We believe these types of selfless acts should be rewarded."

Wesner already has plans for the reward money:

"A couple car repairs might be nice and my daughter is flying to New York on Friday — it's both our birthdays and we'll probably do something fun in New York," she told WNYT.