Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
WEST HAVEN, Weber County — Many parents have that one kid who loves pranks. For Lori Hickman, it's her son Rhett Hickman.
"He has that personality. Sometimes you don't quite know if he's telling the truth," Hickman said. "He just likes to egg me on a little bit."
So, when Rhett Hickman came home Thursday morning telling his mom that a Weber County Sheriff's Office deputy was coming over because he found a lot of money, she thought it was another prank.
"I'm like, 'You did not,'" said Lori Hickman. "I just know Rhett's personality and thought he was teasing me, and he said, 'I did. I really did.'"
Sure enough, at a West Haven intersection, Rhett Hickman and his two friends were on their way to work and saw a box with lots of envelopes in it in the middle of the road. So, they stopped to check it out.
"We didn't know until I kicked one of them, and money flew out," Rhett Hickman said.
A lot of money, all in cash.
"Somewhere between $45,000 and $50,000 maybe is a rough guess? We didn't actually count it," Rhett Hickman said. "We just looked at the envelopes, and he had written $10,000, $8,000, $4,000. Stuff like that."
"I have never seen that much cash ever, especially just sitting in the road, so it was kind of crazy just to see it sitting there," added friend Cael Cypers.
Without hesitation, though, all three of them knew they couldn't keep it.
"The first reaction was like, well, let's get this to the right person, and then afterwards, we're like, dang. 'We could have done a lot with that,'" said the other friend, Cord Cypers. "This is a ton of money. I don't know what I would have done if that was my money, right? So, we got it. And the first thing Rhett said is let's call the cops. Let's get this to the right person."
A Weber County sheriff's deputy came over to claim the envelopes. The three men joked about what they could have done with all that money.
"This would pay off a lot of loans I got," Rhett Hickman said. "But I was like, we better do the right thing and give it back, so."
Even pranksters have a limit.
"That is a huge temptation, but I am really proud of all of them," Lori Hickman said.
The Weber County Sheriff's Office said a man called Thursday afternoon saying he lost a lot of money. He was shocked when deputies told him someone found the money and turned it in.
The man, who didn't want to be identified, gave exact descriptions of the box the money was in and the credit unions listed on the envelopes. He met with the three men Thursday night to tell them he forgot about the box on his truck trailer and got distracted with a phone call.
When he left, the box slid off his truck trailer.
He told the three men that he searched the area for nearly three hours looking for the money before calling the sheriff's office. He also gave the three men a reward and an even bigger thank you.
