IL - "Cursed" $150,000 found in man's broccoli garden claims him as latest victim

Man who found $150K in garden dies. (Chicago Tribune)

A McHenry County man who found $150,000 in his garden has died just days before he was due to collect a portion of the cash, causing some to wonder if his elderly neighbor was right all along.

She said the money was cursed.

Wayne Sabaj, 51, was an unemployed carpenter when he reported finding the bags of cash while picking broccoli in August 2011. He was due to enter into a settlement in court on July 11 that would have split the windfall between him and the neighbor, said his lawyer, Robert Burke.

The neighbor, Delores Johnson, whose daughter had also made a claim for the money on her behalf, also died before the mystery was settled. Johnson, who had dementia and died in December at 87, told her daughter that "she had gotten rid of the money because it was cursed," said Burke, quoting court records.

"Apparently, she was right. The money is cursed," Burke said.
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much, much more at the link above

How bizarre. I wonder if it was really the elderly lady's money, and being in dementia got rid of it, or if Sabaj talked about and described the packaged money to the woman's daughter.

txsvicki said:

How bizarre. I wonder if it was really the elderly lady's money, and being in dementia got rid of it, or if Sabaj talked about and described the packaged money to the woman's daughter.

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Could be, on that last. Don't know if the guy would share the details if the old lady was dead already, but possibly the daughter got to him and announced that her mother had buried that money and it was, therefore, hers. So - partners out of convenience.

The guy with the wacky "that money was stolen from my liquor store" thing didn't last long, lawsuit-wise. Might have saved his life though!

I'll be happy to take it off whosever hands it's in now