When I turned 16 and was legally allowed to not only drive, but get a job that would give me money, I did so immediately… well almost immediately, the summer after my birthday.  My first job was at a tourist shop on the strip down at the beach called “Holiday Department Store.”  I spent my time there folding “Virginia Beach” t-shirts, printing “Virginia Beach” t-shirts, working the cash register and stocking the store.  I worked with a great group of people and got to spend my time down at the beach, which made me happy. 

 

Every day, in order to get to and from work I had to drive through two ten cent tolls and a twenty-five cent toll.  The small strip of interstate known as “The Expressway,” which dead-ended at the Oceanfront, at that time, was a toll road.  It pretty much sucked having to pay this every single time I drove to the beach - which was literally just a 10 minute drive.

One day in particular, I was sitting at work, when it dawned on me that I had ZERO change on me to get home with after work, yes there were alternate routes that I could have taken to avoid the tolls, BUT at 16 years old, you took the route that had no guesswork involved in it and was a straight shot to your destination.  I remember sitting there actually thinking to myself and wondering if my Nissan Sentra would fit between the toll booth and the bar that went up and down when you paid (which by the way, I would later find out that NO, my Nissan WOULD NOT fit through that space, without getting an enormous scratch down the side - lesson learned).  When it was time to close up the store, I went outside to start wheeling in all the carts that were in the front of the store that held multiple cheapo “Virginia Beach” novelty items.  When I got to the second cart, I noticed a vinyl zippered pouch in one of the bins.

 

I opened the pouch and found several hundred dollars in cash AND thirty-five cents - the EXACT amount of change that I needed to get through the tolls and get home!  IT WAS AWESOME!  It was like I was meant to find that money!!!  There was nothing else in the bag, no I.D., no receipts, nothing.  I took the thirty-five cents out of the bag and totally pocketed that right then and there, then took the bag to my manager and let her know that I had found it.  She told me that she would hold it in the office for a week - if no one claimed it, it was mine since I was the one that found it - you know… finders keepers!  I knew that money would be mine, the thirty-five cents was a sign.  No one ever claimed it and I got to keep the money, which was like winning a million dollar lottery to a 16 year old.

That was my ONE lucky moment in my life and the only time I have ever found money.