Workers at a Burger King restaurant in the South Bay were shocked to find an abandoned blue backpack sitting at one of their tables containing a whopping $100,000 in cash.
Sahista Bakawla, assistant manager of Burger King at 1305 North Bascom Avenue in San Jose, Calif., first noticed the bag left without an owner as she was cleaning the tables on Nov. 26, says ABC's local San Francisco TV station KGO.
"I twice cleaned, like, two or three times cleaned the tables and it's still here," Bakawla says. "I waited until 3 p.m. and nobody came here."
Bakawla then decided to pick up the backpack and take it to her manager, Altaf Chaus, who is also the owner of the said restaurant. Chaus said he kept the bag next to the cash register, hoping someone would come back to claim it. No one did.
Hoping to get home early in time for his birthday celebration, Chaus decided to open the bag to look for an identification card of some sort where he could find contact information that would help him reach the bag's owner. What he found inside gave him a surprise.
"I open the zipper, I see lots of money, cash money, $100 bills stack up like half the bag, money," says the 53-year-old restaurant owner. "I said, 'Wow! Today's my birthday, this is my birthday gift.'"
That, however, was nothing more than a passing thought as Chaus decided to call the police right away.
Although Chaus says he has never seen that much money in his life, he says he was never tempted to get away with using someone else's money. The Indian-born man, who came to America 26 years ago, has humble beginnings. He worked three jobs, one as a mechanic fixing air conditioners during the day, another as a Taco Bell worker in the evening and another as a gas station attendant during the night until daybreak. The money he earned from his three jobs he used to support his growing family in America and his parents and three siblings he left behind in India.
Eventually, Chaus was able to save enough money to buy a Burger King.
"I am Muslim, and we believe that you have to sweat to get what you earn," Chaus says. "We say, 'If you don't sweat, it's not your money.'"
Aside from the stacks of crisp $50 and $100 bills, authorities also found some candy, a pack of marijuana and a Wells Fargo withdrawal slip for $300, with only $7.95 left in the account.
