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CNN Saturday Morning News

Ohio Park Rangers Seek Owners of Stashed Cash

Aired September 08, 2001 - 09:55   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Park rangers in Ohio have launched a somewhat unusual search.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: It is. They are looking for the owners of a stash of cash that was found in an abandoned barn.

Tracy McCool of our affiliate station WJW reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRACY MCCOOL, WJW REPORTER (voice-over): The treasure was found tucked away in the depths of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. A park maintenance worker stumbled across the stash while restoring a rickety old barn.

BRIAN MCHUGH, CHIEF RANGER: It was in one of the structures in the park, and stabilizing it, doing what was necessary for that. And they came across some cash...

MCCOOL: So where was the lucky find in this 33,000-acre park? Well, it could have been this barn, or that barn. We don't know. You see, park officials are keeping their own secrets about the mystery money.

MCHUGH: Our goal is to get the dollars to the right person, and if somebody comes forward and knows all the details of how the money was stored and everything about where we found it, I think we'd be inclined to say that's probably the person who put it there.

MCCOOL (on camera): The barn is part of a homestead that was developed by an A.J. Saficole (ph) back in 1891. The park then bought the property from the late Robert Hopkins in 1998. He had lived at this home since 1969. So at this point, the rightful owner of this money is anyone's guess.

MCHUGH: Well, that's a good mystery. So the mystery's going to continue. We're going to try and track that down. We're inclined to -- we've located the lawyer for the estate of the gentleman we bought the property from, who asked us to buy his property, and so we're going to try and track down how all that works and who might be entitled to it.

MCCOOL (on camera): Some might think this find is a sign of more treasures to come, but Brian McHugh says he wouldn't bet on it. MCHUGH: You got about 1,200 buildings, structures, in the park, and we've never found anything in any of these. We've gone through them all. So it's not like it's a good idea to go treasure hunting, please, you know.

MCCOOL (on camera): Park officials say the people living in the home today are not party to the money, and that's why they're in the process of going through all the property records, trying to track down the heirs of the former owners.

From Studio 8 at Summit Mall, I'm Tracy McCool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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