Dick Cooper, a cop I had the pleasure of working with at the NPD and CCSO, received a call from a concerned neighbor in Royal Harbor. Something was amiss with the man next door. Arriving on the scene, Dick saw the man in his yard, on his knees, behind a cheap push mower. His hands were still holding the mower's handle--a neat trick since he was stone dead.
Cooper made the appropriate calls, then went to see if there was anyone in the house. Opening the door, he could see into the kitchen. The kitchen table was shoved into a corner and on it was piled money, so much that some had slid onto the floor. Cooper entered.
The house was found to be vacant, and what Cooper discovered inside still, to this day, blows his mind. In the bedroom, the dresser had five dollar bills stacked on top. Opening the drawers, he found them packed full of fivers, rubber-banded in bundles, and marked as to amount. And that wasn't all!
The closets and dressers throughout the house were similarly packed. Shoe boxes in the closets stored tens, twenties, up to and including $100 bills. The final total was well over $800,000 dollars. Cash money! Ms Mamie Tooke was called at the Bank of Naples and arrangements made to store the load. Dick says it took a van to carry it off.
When Cooper checked the garage, he found the deceased also had a fondness for canned goods. Stacked up to seven-feet high, and sorted by contents, were tomatoes, peas, beans, you name it. All seemingly purchased when on sale and some stored so long the cans had rusted out and were seeping juice.
Not much was ever found out about this strange customer. No friends, family, known source of income.
The money was eventually converted to government use, none ever put to the arcane purpose for which it had been hoarded.
Thanks to Ray Barnett and Dick Cooper
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