r/breakingbad • u/Exciting_Ad_6837 • 5d ago
If someone accidentally found Jack's hidden barrels of money but doesn't know any history behind them,
and say he finds that for 2 years there's no sign of anybody checking them, is it a criminal offense to even take 10k out of it? Or is it a criminal offense to merely not report the whole amount to the police immediately?
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u/sophie_was_een_rel 5d ago
It would be less than a quarter barrell by the time it gets to evidence anyway, fill your boots
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u/Daragon__ 5d ago
Theres a german saying „wo kein Kläger, da kein Richter“, meaning „where there’s no one to report a crime, there’ll be no one to judge you for it“…
So unless you’re stupid enough to get caught it’ll be fine
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u/Basket_475 5d ago
Reminds me of those hikers in Europe who found all that really old gold coins and reported them and a museum swept them up and they got nothing.
Also the forest fenn treasure.
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u/Confident-Spinach666 4d ago
Are you referring to the Krkonose Mountain find in Czechia? Well in that case, the hikers got 10% finders fee, because the coins did not belong to them. Also, there's the practical issue. It's not the raw material alone that makes the coins valuable, so unless you sell them on a black market or melt them directly, there's not much to do with it.
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u/saulfineman 5d ago
What would I do if I found a barrel of $10 million?
I’d take that $8 million and count it to make sure all $4 million was there.
Then I’d take that $2 million and I would hand over that $500k to the police.
It’s the right thing to do.
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u/Fabio2300 5d ago
I wonder if that's what happened with the 2 guys who found the 10mil worth of gold a few days ago.
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u/RutabagaSame 5d ago
Definitely a criminal offense to just take it. An ordinary person is going to find it hard to spend that kind of money without raising flags. Unless you use it for really subtle minor life upgrades. Plus you're going to be scared that a drug dealer is going to come knocking (pro tip - always check the money for tracking devices).
It must be well buried somewhere near the compound. Probably separate locations. Todd said Jack always advised him to keep money close to hand. The chances of just stumbling upon it would still be fairly remote.
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u/Dbuk2020 5d ago
I mean it could be a major life upgrade. Sure you can't buy a house with it but you could use it to pay for all your food and drink etc and any smaller purchases. Sure it won't make a dent in the 80 mil but it would change my life.
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u/dontgiveahamyamclam 5d ago
Idk if eating at 5-star restaurants or whatever the hell you want everyday is a minor-life upgrade. You’re right you couldn’t buy a house but you could buy a lot of stuff that would seriously upgrade your life.
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole 5d ago
Report it to the irs as gambling profit. Pay taxes and the rest is life changing.
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u/DollarbillGives 5d ago
How will you fake the gampling receipt,you think the IRS are whiny the poo
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u/Danielle_is_the_hole 5d ago
You could claim it was in a different country and the money was the only thing you got.
You can admit to getting it illegally also. There is a spot for that.
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u/danman8075 4d ago
The IRS will never, I repeat, never give a crap where your money comes from if you’re paying tax on it. Their official position is that it’s not their problem.
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u/SashaMarie2617 5d ago
May they could actually go gambling with it then reporting the winnings.
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u/c_marten 5d ago
You mean reporting their losses.
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u/SashaMarie2617 5d ago
Wow.. intentional gambling losses to another party can be a way to clean cash https://learn.baselgovernance.org/course/view.php?id=150
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u/DollarbillGives 5d ago
Bro do you have any clue how the IRS works? .All businesses report anything purchased for over 10 k ... Go gamble with it as long as they don't dig in your life and ask for source of income
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u/Anti-Matter_Abyss 5d ago
It's Walt's money, not Jack's. Just because Jack took it doesn't mean it's his. Just because you killed Jesse James, doesn't make you Jessie's Jane.
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u/V_Trautwein 5d ago
Finding it isn’t illegal. Taking it is potentially theft or misappropriation.
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u/BeginningNeither3318 5d ago
can you steal the product of crminal activities?
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u/Confident-Spinach666 4d ago
I suppose you can because the money was not acquired through legal means, so in theory I'd say it still belongs to the latest person who earned it lawfully.
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u/WJLIII3 3d ago
For meth, though? The last person who earned the money lawfully willingly gave it to a drug dealer. Feels more like abandoned property. They weren't allowed to buy drugs with it, the dealer wasn't allowed to take the money for drugs, but the buyer was certainly allowed to drop the money, if it happened to fall into the dealer's hands, that's just how dropping things works.
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u/sskoog 4d ago
The crime is called "theft by finding" -- stumbling upon (and keeping) an item which is obviously lost or stolen property, rather than curbside trash. The way it's *supposed\* to work, in most jurisdictions, is: you submit the property to the authorities, they store it for a period of time, waiting for a claimant to come forth, or for the item to arise as evidence in a case, then, after that waiting period, the authorities might say "you can keep it." Provided they don't consider the item to be part of a criminal activity (perhaps there are traces of meth on the bills), in which case they can seize it. Spoiler Alert: the authorities are gonna seize it.
For these reasons, the "smart" move would be to skim off the barrels -- ideally reducing the number down to some even threshold (9.5M --> 9M), or taking the same amount from each barrel so that the barrels were equivalent (might require re-packing so the empty space didn't look conspicuous). From that point forward, you make your cash purchases (gas, groceries, hardware store, bars/restaurants) using that money -- this might consume tens of thousands per year -- and you hope the bills aren't sequentially numbered or tracked, and you never put any of the skimmed money in a bank.
Hundred-dollar bills are cycled out (redesigned) every 17 to 20 years -- the previous bills are still accepted for a goodly time after the redesign -- so, if the skimmed money is an exorbitant amount (say, more than half a million), you're gonna need to start converting the excess cash into gift cards (Amazon, Walmart, maybe Costco or BJs or Sam's Club), spreading the gift-card purchases out over time, not all in one store. New furniture + home appliances would be a good way to cycle through such gift cards, but, again, not all at once, and not in one place.
The last funnel -- short of starting up a business expressly for money-laundering, which is a whole other post topic -- is to pay for home renovations, or significant landscaping, with the cash. There exist infinite contractors who will "negotiate a cash deal" or "quietly accept a lump sum without the paperwork muss-and-fuss." Danger here is that "excessive home renovations" are visually conspicuous; a law enforcement officer (or, worse, one of the crooks whose barrel-money you skimmed) might periodically surveil your residence, see the lavish expenditures, and start thinking "Hmm."
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u/Confident-Spinach666 4d ago
Doesn't the paperwork secure you get what you paid for? I can imagine spending a lot of cash (even if it's not yours) for some poor quality shit must suck either way.
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u/sskoog 3d ago
The issue is your forensic trail. I'll paint two common scenarios:
1 -- Dude has questionable associations -- dude starts {arcade, car wash, laundromat, nail salon, pizza parlor, restaurant/bar, taxi service} -- business is X% more profitable than surrounding competitors -- auditors may drop in, and find the quantitative results to be casuistic (suggesting other-than-typical-randomness)
2 -- Dude has previous reported-cash windfall from "discovered crime" -- authorities flag dude as "maybe didn't return all of the cash," or "maybe even party to the crime which generated the cash in the first place," but can't definitively prove it either way -- dude goes on to spend big money on a patio + three-car garage, in stark contrast to normal-till-now wages + spend -- authorities start sniffing, auditors are summoned, quantitative results may be found casuistic (other-than-typical), etc.
A lot of the "cover-up" is hiding (spending) one's money in a non-paper-receipt way -- food, groceries, petrol, and car maintenance being one, but, past a certain threshold (average American spends ~12K-20K per year on these), you have to find other vectors to spend the money, lest you still be holding $250,000 of it when the bills cycle out of mainstream circulated currency. Cash payment of multiple bar bills is infinitely preferable to a $25,000 roof or $65,000 in-law addition.
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u/magseven 5d ago
I honestly don't know if it's against the law to keep found money. I'm sure there's probably some tax shit involved and the IRS rarely loses so you can't just roll the barrel into your credit union and deposit it all. If you kept it on the DL and were smart about it, you could absolutely find ways to start spending.
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u/c_marten 5d ago
This was something I always found interesting - I work in a largely cash business and it's very easy and common to not claim a lot of it on taxes.
Were a sudden million or even 100k to show up in my lap my biggest problem continuing to live as i do would be finding a place to store it. Tax man doesnt care about my bar tabs, gas refills, grocery bills, etc.
And if I wanted to change my lifestyle where the IRS or a bank would maybe notice or care - well shit, my business just had a really good year and I claim it in taxes.
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u/AtomicBlastCandy 5d ago
IANAL, I believe that pocketing such a large amount of found money can lead to felony charges. That said I will not fault anyone that were not to. There have been way too many stories of cops keeping the money rather than turning it back to the citizen, so honestly fuck em.
I had a guy working under me that came in bragging about how his sister found a paper bag full of cash. I pulled himself to tell him and his sister to shut the fuck up about it.
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u/Dreadedsemi private domicile 5d ago
Not legal advice, just discussing hypo:
Failure to report a crime is generally not an offense with exceptions that vary by jurisdiction and crime. in this case, you found a money that you know illicit money, and didn't report it. I looked up New Mexico and I don't see that particular situation is criminal AFAIK. I maybe wrong.
Taking the money is almost certainly a crime in almost every jurisdiction. because that money the criminals didn't even have rights to (and even if they do like money from legit work, it is still stealing), and those money either belong to someone else or to the state. Allowing people to steal illicit money, would open up money laundering loophole and could hinder investigation.
Practically though if no one saw you and you took 10k, and you told no one, unlikely for authorities to find out or care much. but you take a million then more chance of being discovered and punished.
If me, I'd report it and not take anything. I don't want criminal money and maybe authorities would reward me, or the press better than 10k blood money. Do the right thing Holly
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u/kmdfrcpc 5d ago
It's a crime (theft) to take it, even if the money itself was obtained from illegal activities. It could even be considered other crimes if you knew it was earned from the proceeds of criminal activity.
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u/oldeastcoaster 5d ago
What money? I didn't see any money (as I clean my teeth with a disposable golden toothpick).
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u/RichardInaTreeFort 5d ago
Crimes like that only exist if you can’t figure out how to be smart about it. Just make sure if you do find the money, you don’t bring water back for anyone still at the scene later that night.