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Hotel Keeps Cash Woman Found in Room

Posted on: Wednesday, 4 February 2004, 06:00 CST

The coffee pot inside Joan Kubricky's Montana hotel room became a jackpot when she removed its filter basket and found more than $3,000 stashed inside.

But that Sept. 14 discovery has since turned into a tug-of-war with the hotel's management, which now has decided to keep the cash.

Kubricky, of Queensbury, was staying at the Holiday Inn in Missoula-Parkside when she found the $3,122. She immediately turned it over to the hotel's general manager, who said the money would be kept in escrow until its rightful owner came forward.

Kubricky said she was told that if no one claimed the money within 90 days, the cash would be hers. But now that that deadline has passed, hotel officials apparently have had a change of heart.

"The Holiday Inn manager told me on the phone he sent the money to his home office, and they were not going to return it," Kubricky told The Post-Star of Glens Falls.

John Bernthal, hotel general manager, confirmed the money won't be returned to Kubricky.

"We checked with our home office, and they said if the money was found in a public area, that might be one thing, but it was found on our property, and we have it," Bernthal told the newspaper.

The money, he added, was likely stashed in the coffee maker by a transient drug dealer.

Kubricky is contemplating legal action, and said if she gets the money, she'll donate it to charity.

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