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Honest Skokie High School Students Turn In Hundreds Of Dollars That Fall From Armored Car

SKOKIE, Ill. (CBS) -- What would you do if a lot of money – actual American legal tender – fell right at your feet?

A couple of high schoolers in Skokie recently stumbled upon some cold, hard cash – fresh off an armored truck. CBS 2's Steven Graves set out to meet those honest students, who turned in the money.

For a day in Skokie - it was like money grew on trees and came down like fall leaves.

"It was so windy – literally, money was floating in the air!" said Zev Goldstein.

Goldstein and his friends were walking from breakfast Thursday morning outside Fasman Yeshiva High School, at 7135 Carpenter Rd. in Skokie, when more green than the grass started appearing.

"There's tons of money - hundreds of 20s just lying on the ground in this area that floated over the bushes."

"I was like, whose is this? Where is this coming from?" added Coby Kamish.

Kamish figured something was off. He tried to give the cash to a man in the distance who was rushing to pick it up.

"And he was like, 'Just keep it!' I was like, 'That's weird, why would he just say keep it?'"

It turned out that man was guy was pocketing the money.

"And then we look across the street and we see the armored truck," Kamish said.

Across Touhy Avenue in the Village Crossing shopping center, there is a Bank of America ATM - where the bank says a third-party vendor somehow let money get out of the armored truck.

"Because of how windy it was, it was futile," Goldstein said. "We just gave up."

He said the students did recover an estimated $790, which is now in the hands of police.

"I thought the right thing was to give it back to the p[people that actually, it's their money," Kamish said.

But there was a fleeting feeling that these young men won't soon forget.

"This is the best day of my life, initially," Goldstein said. "Yeah, I wish it could happen a second time."

Skokie police said this is an active investigation - so they cannot say how much money was found, or if they are looking at surveillance footage. But they do say they are thankful for these teens' honesty, and wanted to make sure it was recognized.

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