Derek was a doorman at an upscale hotel located on North Michigan Avenue. He lived at this hotel in a small windowless room in the back. It was supposed to be temporary until he found his own place but it’s been pretty much a permanent stay. The hotel manager allowed it because Derek was such a valuable employee at the hotel.
It was his day off so he thought he’d go for a run along the lakefront. He exits the hotel lobby giving the thumbs up to the doorman on duty. The doorman smiles and tells Derek to have a good run. He was jogging on the sidewalk in the direction of the lake listening to his favorite music through his headphones. It was a beautiful Autumn day and everything was good.
Also heading in the same direction but on the street was an elderly man driving his Cadillac. The car starts swerving while the elderly man clutches his chest. The man’s wife starts screaming. The Cadillac jumps the curb and smashes Derek against a wall killing him. There he lies on the hood of the Cadillac with his headphones next to him loudly playing The Moody Blues.
Vic was randomly assigned this case. He arrives at the hotel for his appointment with the hotel manager and parks his SUV in the hotel’s circle drive per the manager”s permission. Vic approaches the desk clerk and is told the manager will be right out. In a few moments the manager comes out from the back extending his hand to Vic.
“Thank you for coming out so quickly. The whole hotel staff is really upset about the thought of Derek still in the morgue.” the manager tells Vic.
He goes on to tell Vic that Derek’s name was an American version of his Polish name Dariusz. The manager said Derek never mentioned family or had any visitors. He would spend most holidays with whomever on the staff would invite him.
“He was a great employee. Everyone loved him. He’d pitch in to help wherever we needed it. Kitchen, laundry, room service. He didn’t keep his responsibilities to doorman only.”
Vic is following the manager to where Derek’s room was. It was situated in a section that had once housed some staff decades ago.
Vic asks how much rent Derek was paying.
The manager responds “Couldn’t charge him since he was such a dedicated employee. So dependable and willing to go above and beyond others. The owners of the hotel agreed to the arrangement.”
Vic says “I wouldn’t mind having my three meals a day served to me at a four star hotel either.”
“True,” the manager says “But his room isn’t exactly a four star experience.”
As they approach Derek’s room the manager says “Nobody has been in here since he died. Nobody has a key except me. Not even the housekeeping staff. He changed the lock once but I insisted he give me a key just in case of an emergency. Who would have thought that this would be the emergency. Poor fella.”
They arrive at the room and the manager lets Vic in. After Vic photographs the room he starts going through the papers. The manager says “As far as I know everything he owned in the world is all in this room. We provided the little bit of furniture you see here. He really didn’t need much or I should say he really didn’t want much.”
Vic grabs a shoe box from a closet shelf and opens it and discovers that it’s filled with cash.
“Oh my!” the manager says.
Vic grabs another shoe box and more cash in this one too.
“This must all be of his tip money.”
Vic grabs a full garbage bag and looks in that. “For real?” he says after seeing that too filled with cash.
“Derek, what did you do?” was the managers response.
After some time, Vic had found several more boxes and bags filled with cash. He says to the manager “There’s no way I’ll be able to count all this on my own. If it’s OK with you I’d like to call for some help back in the office.”
Malika answers the office phone when Vic calls. “Hi Malika, are either of the guys still there?”
Malika responds “No, they’re gone. Is there something I can help you with?”
“You’re not going to believe this but I’m at the hotel on that doorman that got ran over and his room is completely filled with cash! I need some help here!”
Malika says “Give me five minutes and I’ll take a taxi over.” Before she leaves she stops in to tell Dick, our office attorney. He tells her he’ll call the bank next door where the office has several large accounts, and inform them to have several tellers available to receive the cash.
Malika arrives at the hotel where a receptionist shows her to Derek’s room. Once she enters she looks around and sees Vic and the manager still dumping shoe box after shoe box of cash into large garbage bags. “Are you kidding me!?” How much do you think is here?” she asks
“A lot! Mostly fives and singles. Tip money over the years.” Vic says.
“And no indication of family? I guess there won’t be any doubt whether we open an estate on this one.” Malika says.
In order for the Public Administrator’s Office to “open an estate,” there needs to be at least $5,000 in assets verified by the financial institute the decedent had money at. Obviously having cash is irrefutable. I should mention here that finding a large amount of cash in a residence in unusual. Some money found in a wallet or purse is common. Any large amount needs to be taken to a bank where it is converted to a check because our bookkeepers in the office are only allowed to receive $1,500 in cash. Any cash turned in at a bank over $10,000 requires the bearer to provide their social security number so IRS forms can be filled out. I’m always concerned that the IRS will somehow think that it’s a personal transaction or money laundering scheme and not a transaction for the office. Malika said this did happen to her before. The IRS came asking about the large cash transaction she was involved in. After inventorying and removing a large amount of money from a decedents safe deposit box at a downtown bank, she converted it into a check at that same bank before leaving, as is the procedure. Apparently the teller didn’t fill out the IRS forms properly but it eventually all got resolved. I’ll discuss safe deposit boxes later. Back to Derek’s story.
Malika tells Vic that Dick said he’d meet them at the bank when they get there. She says “I’ts going to take a few days to count all of this. Are you finished with everything else here and can we start loading your car?”
The manager tells her a housekeeper is bringing a few laundry hampers now for them to transport the bags of money to Vic’s car. They’ll need to make several trips though. Vic tells Malika he’s parked in the circle drive and the doorman will watch them as they load it.
Once the laundry hampers are full, they start the transfer.
As they’re packing Vic’s SUV with these bags, pedestrians are passing back and forth on the sidewalk not paying attention. Vic secures his car and he and Malika head back with the carts for more bags.
“Unbelievable!” Malika says.
Just as Vic and Malika finish and thank the manager for all his help, the manager hands them both free brunch vouchers to be used at the hotel. Vic’s eyes light up.
“Thank you” he says, “My mother-in-law lives in the neighborhood and on Sundays when my wife and I visit her, she always wants to come here for your brunch. She says you have the best Eggs Benedict. That’s a pretty high compliment coming from a woman who usually only likes eating at restaurants in Greek Town.”
“Well thank her for me” the manager responds.
Malika hands her voucher back to the manager thanking him but the office policy is that the employees are not allowed to receive such gifts due to the chance that it’ll look like a bribe of some sort. This rule was implemented by a previous boss of ours. Usually around the holidays, the banks, funeral homes and other institutions the office uses will send boxes of Fannie May chocolates, Frango Mints or what-have-you to our office for all of us to enjoy. The boss would instruct all those goodies be returned out of concern that it’ll look like some bribe was occurring. It’s just a piece of candy for heavens sake!
After Malika handed hers back, Vic sighed and reluctantly did the same.
“Such a Girl scout” he says to her after they get in his car.
The next morning as we’re all sitting at our desk talking about the circumstances that occurred the day before, Karen the receptionist pops her head in the room.
“Good morning everyone! I hear you guys came across a doozy yesterday. “
Dick walks in then too and asks “Should we take bets to see how close in guessing how much it turns out being?”
Vic says, “I don’t know. Probably not as much as you might think. Mostly fives and singles.”
“But still there were tons of them.” Dick says.
“Why would anyone keep that amount of money sitting around? Just think of all that interest he could have been earning if he had it in a bank.” Karen asks. (this occurred back when banks were paying near double digit interest on deposits).
Ben says that since the decedent came from Communist Poland, he probably didn’t trust banks. Just like the people that went through the Great Depression.
“I need to head over to the bank soon and check the progress. Once I get a final dollar amount I’ll let you and Mr. C know.” Vic said.
Dick says “I talked to him about it already and he said you handled it real well. That’s exactly what he would have done.”
“You’re my hero Vic.” Malika gushes.
When Vic gets to the bank he enters the room that is being used to count the money. There are several tellers zipping bills through the counting machines while they show expressionless faces. The head teller approaches Vic and says they are almost finished. She just needed some info from him for those tax forms.
I know you are all going to want to know what the final amount was but I honestly don’t remember. It happened so long ago. I do recall that it was hundreds of thousands. Not a million but back then the amount was considered a small fortune. I also do not remember if any family ever materialized.