Coquitlam RCMP reunites man with lost cash

Mounties in Coquitlam say they’ve been able to return a large sum of cash that was found at an IKEA store in September to its rightful owner.

In an update posted Tuesday, the RCMP says officers were able to get the money back to Pantelis Sarris on Nov. 18.

The same month he misplaced the cash, Sarris called into JACK 96.9’s morning show to share his “Weekend Regret,” telling hosts Drex and Lena that a bundle of money fell out of his pocket while he was shopping with his daughter for furniture.

Investigators say that it was after they sent out a media release about the cash on Nov. 14 that they were able to make the connection.

“This is the outcome that we hoped for and are very pleased to see,” Corp. Alexa Hodgins.

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“It’s really nice to see how the community came together to reunite Pantelis with his lost cash. Without the genuine integrity of the finder turning the money over to the police this ending would not be possible.”

Speaking to CityNews, Sarris says it feels really good to be able to get the money back, and it “restored” his faith.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t expect to see it back because I lost it around September the 11th. And of course, I didn’t hear about it till sometime in November,” he said.

“My daughter was super happy. We initially were going to get a dresser and stuff, and we never got it, of course, because the money was lost. We were waiting until we saved up a little more money to grab what we needed. And [because the money] was returned to us, now we’re ready to go get that for her,” he explained.

Sarris says when he went to go pick up his cash, just under $700, from Mounties last week, officers told him they had been fielding phone calls from folks trying to claim his money as their own.

“The officer said, ‘You would be amazed how many phone calls I got on this … the last one I had was $700,000, they said they lost.’ And I’m like, wow, that’s quite a stretch from what I lost,” he laughed.

“Come on, who’s carrying 700k? Like I could say, maybe $500, $1,000, maybe two-grand tops. You’re going to IKEA, it’s not like we’re going to Louis Vuitton.”