Baltimore Or Less

By David Dishneau (Associated Press via Huffington Post, 03/23/12)

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Dozens of drivers stopped to grab fistfuls of money after thousands of dollars spilled from an armored truck along a Maryland highway Friday and created what one motorist called one big “snow globe of cash.”

Attorney Heather Kelly said she was driving on Interstate 270 to her office in Frederick when she passed through the surreal scene about 35 miles northwest of Washington.

Kelly didn’t recall seeing an armored truck, but she did see two clear plastic bags of currency along the road and about 30 cars parked on both shoulders by people frantically trying to collect the money.

“It was in the traffic lanes and on the shoulders and just generally kind of like a snow globe of cash,” she said.

She said stopping seemed too risky, but some drivers did. No one was injured.

“Some people had fists full of money, fists full of dollars, and other people were just still trying to collect,” she said.

The two bags contained about $5,700 in cash and coins and fell out of an unsecured door, Maryland State Police Sgt. Mark Cummings said.

The motorists who stopped were able to snatch up almost all the money, Cummings said. Police urged them to return it to the state police barracks in Rockville, with no questions asked and no charges filed.

The truck was operated by Garda World Security Services Corp., a Montreal-based security and cash logistics company, spokesman Joe Gavaghan said. He said the company is cooperating with state police investigators.