Virginia family finds nearly $1M in cash on road

Emily Schantz told the television station she was riding with her family in their pickup truck when they noticed the car in front of them swerve to avoid something in the road. The pickup hit the object and the Schantzes stopped.

Picking up the bag, the family put it -- and another one found about 15 feet away -- in their pickup, WTVR reported.

“Inside of the bag, there were plastic baggies and they were addressed with something that said ‘cash vault,’” Schantz told the television station.

The Schantzes called deputies after realizing what they had found.

"They came back to Caroline, and found out they'd been riding around with almost a million dollars in the truck," Maj. Scott Moser, a spokesperson for the Caroline County Sheriff's Office, told WTVR.

Deputies said they believed the bags belonged to the U.S. Postal Service, and that the money had been intended for a bank. Officials said they were not sure how the bags had ended up in the road.

Moser commended the Schantz family for their honesty.

"For someone so honest and willing to give that almost a million dollars back, it's exceptional on their part," Moser told WTVR. "Their two sons were there, so I put the lights on for them, but we are proud and they represented this county well by being so honest."

Schantz said keeping the money was never an option.

"Do the right thing and return it," she told WTVR. "Because it didn't belong to us."