Chiropractors Assistant Discovers Thousands in Trash

A chiropractors assistant has reportedly discovered a large sum of money that was stuffed into a paper bag and placed inside a trash can located just inside the office's front door. The El Salvadorian born chiropractic assistant was giddy with excitement when I spoke to her over the phone Monday, about the Sunday evening discovery.

by Daria Belov

West Los Angeles: A chiropractors assistant has reportedly discovered a large sum of money that was stuffed into a paper bag and placed inside a trash can located just inside the office’s front door. The El Salvadorian born chiropractic assistant was giddy with excitement when I spoke to her over the phone Monday, about the Sunday evening discovery.

(photo: chiropractors assistant laughs as she pulls a handful of hundred dollar bills from the discovered paper bag)

It’s a great day at ADIO Chiropractic exclaimed the voice on the other end of the line. It was the excited and cheerful voice of Rosa Vertega, the 26 year old chiropractors assistant, who had made the fortuitous discovery less than 24 hours prior. I found out about the story while checking RSS feeds on a chiropractor’s e-mail group. The chiropractor from the office posted a seemingly hypothetical question as to what the office should do in the case of discovering a large sum of money. I had a suspicion the situation for real so I quickly called to get more details.

As Rosa explained, trash for the office was being emptied late Sunday evening when the money was discovered. The office is environmentally conscious and maintains several trash cans that are specifically labeled Face Paper Only. According to the office staff, this is so patients don’t mix ordinary trash with the recyclable paper that is used on chiropractic adjusting tables.

The last scheduled time the chiropractic office cared for clients was on Friday, as the office was closed Saturday. Rosa was in the office Sunday evening, along with the chiropractor, wrapping up paperwork for the end of March 2008 and taking care of some minor office cleaning. The discovery was made when the cash stuffed brown paper bag was found mixed in with white face paper destined for the recycle bin.

“I thought someone had accidentally thrown their lunch in the recycle container, since when I felt the bag it had some weight to it” said Rosa. “I opened the bag and was like Oh My God! I quickly looked around to see if someone was playing some sort of joke on me.”

The trashcan where Rosa found the money is located just a few feet from the front door, and the office is part of a very busy shopping center with a lot of walk by foot traffic. She said it’s not the first time someone has put other items in the can intended for paper products only, but there’s never been anything in it like this.

The office typically sees many clients on Fridays and it was initially assumed that the cash belonged to someone visiting the chiropractic practice. Staff spent a good part of Monday morning calling every scheduled person that visited the chiropractors office the previous Friday, asking if they’d lost or left anything in the office. No one has yet reported the money missing.

The bag of cash was placed on a Pitney Bowes postage scale and it reportedly weighed in at over half a pound. While the office would not share how much cash was actually in the sack, I estimated that a bag of that weight, filled primarily with hundred dollar bills, could hold as much as $100,000 or maybe even more.

The funds were turned over to local authorities Monday evening, and Rosa was told that the office could become owners of the cash if no one claimed it within the next 30 days. She said she wants to do the right thing, but she’s more than happy to split the funds with her chiropractic boss, should the opportunity come up. “It’s going to be a crazy April” said the girl with this huge smile on her face…