Brinks truck dumped $600,000 on Indiana highway. Witnesses began scooping it up, cops say
It was an armored truck — but that didn’t stop cash from pouring out when its back doors swung open.
A Brinks truck was driving down Interstate 70 in Indianapolis on Wednesday around 9 a.m. when the truck's back doors flung open and it began hemorrhaging $20 bills, according to Indiana State Police.
Some of the money was in bags. Some was in bundles. And there were plenty of loose bills fluttering about, too. All told, about $600,000 in cash flew out of the truck, authorities told FOX 59. It was as if dozens of ATMs had spontaneously burst open on the roadway, photos show.
Drivers and residents in the surrounding neighborhood didn’t waste time once the cash was loose, police said. Some leaped over fences to rush onto the highway, where traffic was backed up because of the incident. Then some on the highway began to scoop up piles of cash, police told FOX 59.
“I guess it’s not every day you see thousands of dollars just floating around on the interstate during your morning commute,” Cpl. Brock McCooe told FOX 59. “So it was pretty chaotic.”
One witness described passengers getting off a school bus to join the mad dash. Another person had a bag filled with bills, the witness said in a video posted on Facebook. That video has been viewed nearly 1 million times.
"They're all twenties," the woman says in the video. "Do you see all this?"
In the aftermath of the incident, police issued a warning.
“Anyone who picked up money can be charged with theft,” Sgt. John Perrine warned on Twitter. “If you have money from the incident to return, contact the Indiana State Police.”
From the sound of it, police meant business.
As Facebook user Jazmyne Danae walked around recording the piles of cash along the side of the road and in the grass, a man she identified as a police officer approached her and questioned her.
“Your vehicle is going to be searched,” the mans says, as the video ends.
Police said if any thieves return the ill-gotten cash, they’ll be given "amnesty."
“If you’re willing to, in good conscience, turn it back in, there’s amnesty, there’s no real questions asked if you’re willing to give it back,” McCooe told FOX 59.
Traffic heading both directions on Interstate 70 on Indianapolis’ southwest side slowed considerably because of the unforeseen cash dump, police told the Indianapolis Star. Police spent hours collecting the cash.
McCooe told FOX 59 that it was “sort of something out of a movie scene, where you have bills, loose bills flying all over the interstate, vehicles stopping, people getting out of their cars.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2018 at 6:35 PM with the headline "Brinks truck dumped $600,000 on Indiana highway. Witnesses began scooping it up, cops say."