NEW ORLEANS (BP) — After ripping Sheetrock from a moldy closet, Trista Wright was removing the debris when a flash of green caught her eye.
By Keith Manuel
Regional Reporter
NEW ORLEANS (BP) — After ripping Sheetrock from a
moldy closet, Trista Wright was removing the debris when a flash of
green caught her eye.
Wright, on a spring break mission trip from
Armstrong Atlantic University in Savannah, Georgia, reached into the
debris and pulled out an old, grubby $100 bill. As she dug around in
the debris a little more, she discovered a long-hidden hole in the
wall, which served as a makeshift safe, and pulled out another $100
bill, then another and another.
“At first, I thought it was Monopoly money. It was
just stacks of $100 bills. The money was very old,” she said. “My
friend and I were joking just yesterday about finding a secret hole of
treasure.”
When the students hastily totaled the money, it was
more than $30,000. The discovery presented a new problem: “What do we
do now?”
After consulting with the leaders of the mission
trip to New Orleans, the group decided to notify the local authorities.
The sheriff’s department came and verified the home had been in the
family for several generations.
The owner of the home told Wright she was not
surprised by the find because her mother hid things around her house
all the time. Besides that, her father was suspicious of placing money
in banks.
Even though finding something hidden was not a surprise, the amount was a shock to the homeowner.
“The lady was speechless,” Wright said. “It was such
a blessing to the family. The Lord really blessed the family at the
right time because [the owner] had some medical tests done today and
was very anxious about the results.”
“Trista came down here to serve, because Christ
served,” said Aaron Arledge, coordinator for the many college teams
streaming to New Orleans during their spring break to gut flood-ravaged
homes. “It’s great that an honest group was in the house. Someone else
might have just taken the money. The family thought it was a miracle.
For them to have lost so much and then to find this hidden treasure was
just awesome.”