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Steamboat teens return found cash

4 students find nearly $800 in envelope at Steamboat Ski Area

Zach Fridell
Four Steamboat Springs High School teens — from left, Meghan Lukens, Ty Hvambsal, Lilly Hoff and Jaime Winter — turned in $780 in cash they found at Steamboat Ski Area on Sunday. The envelope included the owner’s information, and deputies gave the unidentified man his money back Monday afternoon.
Zach Fridell





Four Steamboat Springs High School teens — from left, Meghan Lukens, Ty Hvambsal, Lilly Hoff and Jaime Winter — turned in $780 in cash they found at Steamboat Ski Area on Sunday. The envelope included the owner’s information, and deputies gave the unidentified man his money back Monday afternoon.
Zach Fridell

— The drifting piece of paper near the top of the Morningside Lift caught the attention of the four Steamboat Springs High School students Sunday, but as they grabbed the envelope, they weren’t prepared for what they found.

“Money exploded out of it,” Ty Hvambsal said. “It ended up being about $800.”

The envelope full of cash was lying on the slope, and if Hvambsal hadn’t slipped and fallen next to it, it likely would have gone unnoticed.



Hvambsal was skiing with friends Jaime Winter, Lilly Hoff and Meghan Lukens. He said it was a quick, unanimous decision to turn the money in.

“We all kind of figured that if we lost $800, somebody would do the same thing,” he said.



The envelope included a withdrawal slip from Throckmorton, Texas, and after the group turned the money in to the Routt County Sheriff’s Office — it ended up totaling $780 — deputies found the owner.

The unidentified man picked up his cash just before 5 p.m. Monday.

“That’s a month’s worth of my pay,” Hoff said.

But all four teens knew they needed to turn in the money.

Hvambsal’s mother said the good deed didn’t come as a surprise.

“He called to tell us what happened, but he had already made his decision, it’s not like he was asking us,” Nancy Hvambsal said. “Ty knows the right thing to do, so yeah, we did expect for him to do the right thing.”

Deputies said they gave the man contact information for the teens, in case he would like to offer a reward.

— To reach Zach Fridell, call 871-4208 or e-mail zfridell@steamboatpilot.com


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