Mary Venegas was “flabbergasted” when she finally found an envelope containing $6,000 in cash buried beneath some cardboard boxes in her backyard.
The Sacramento senior thought the money was long gone after losing it four years ago and was “just so happy” to find it, since she’s living on a fixed income and had overdue utility bills to pay.
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How does one come to lose a cash fortune in their backyard?
“I don’t know… I’m just a 66-year-old woman who’s very forgetful,” Venegas told CBS News Sacramento, explaining that she’d originally planned to use the money to pay her taxes.
But when she went to deposit the money, Bank of America refused to accept her cash because the bills were “deteriorated,” dirty and water damaged after their four-year stay outside.
Here’s what happened — and what you can do if you have damaged or mutilated money.
Government examination
Venegas thought her recent money struggles were solved when she found $6,000 in cash — money that is rightfully hers.
When the bank refused to take the money — which was mostly $100 bills — she found that her deposit may have had to undergo a thorough examination by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), the government agency that prints money (referred to as Federal Reserve notes) and redeems mutilated currency notes.
The BEP defines mutilated currency as notes that have been “damaged to the extent that one-half or less of the original note remains, or its condition is such that its value is questionable.”
Currency notes can be mutilated in many ways, including by fire, water, chemicals, explosives, animals, insects, rodent damage and petrification or deterioration by burying. In Venegas’ case, the cash was likely damaged by water and the corners were clearly eaten away by an insect or animal.
If you have mutilated currency, you can deliver it in-person to the BEP’s Washington D.C. facility, or you can mail it to the agency with a fully completed and signed BEP Form 5283. But the redemption process can take anywhere from six months to three years — a long time to wait for someone who needs the money now.
“What if I die before I ever received it?” Venegas pointed out.
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A partial payday
When Venegas discovered how long she might have to wait to exchange her money with the government, she reached out to the Call Kurtis consumer investigations team at CBS Sacramento.
Considering almost all of the bills she found were almost fully intact and the value of each ($100) was clear, CBS turned to Bank of America — where Venegas has banked for decades — to see if they would reconsider depositing the money.
The bank states on its website that it “does not distribute or accept mutilated currency of any kind” but given the condition of Venegas’ cash and the interest of investigative reports, it ultimately changed its position and accepted $5,700 of the $6,000 haul.
A very relieved Venegas said she plans to use the money to pay off her late utility bills, a debt that was weighing heavy on her fixed retirement income.
As for the remaining $300, Venegas will have to wait and see how long it takes for the rest of her cash to be examined.
