7-year-old boy hits jackpot when he finds bag of cash from robbery

A 7-year-old South Carolina boy hit the lottery over the weekend when he found a bag of stolen loot on his way to a Toys ‘R Us.

Griffin Steele admitted to TV station WBTW in Surfside Beach, S.C., that he was at first stumped at finding a fortune in the trash. “I didn’t really know at all what I thought,” he said.

The cash had been stolen during a bank robbery at a Conway National Bank on Jan. 23 and a TD Bank on Saturday, Jan. 28, it was reported.

Griffin and his father, Shane Steele, found what they described as “tons of money” in a trash can at a gas station, where they stopped to get something to drink, it was reported.

The money was largely covered with conspicuous red dye from exploded dye packs. The father and son called police and found out there had been a bank robbery just hours before the discovery.

“It was a surreal moment,” Shane Steele told WBTW. “That will probably never happen again in my lifetime, finding that much money.”

Investigators didn’t say exactly how much cash was in the bag. Griffin admits he was tempted.

“There was a lot of it that didn’t have the red on it,” he told WBTW, “but I wanted to do the right thing.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 8:40 AM with the headline "7-year-old boy hits jackpot when he finds bag of cash from robbery."