Business & Tech

Money Found at Hartland Dairy Queen Headed to Charities

An area attorney spread more than $1,000 around the community after the rightful owner was not found — but the restaurant owners' choices were not picked.

Howell-area attorney Jules Fiani is giving $1,160 to area charities after the rightful owner failed to step forward to claim the money he found at the on Mother's Day.

Contributions have already been made, including to Special Olympics, Gleaners Community Food Bank, Connection Youth Services, Make-A-Wish and the Livingston County Sheriff's Department Shop With a Cop program, said Fiani, a Brighton resident.

The donations follow an effort by Dairy Queen and Fiani — who thought the money could have been for a mortage or Little League — to find the owner. That effort included calling area media, which did stories on the missing cash.

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The choices of charities raised an issue with Dairy Queen's owners, though, who said they thought they would play a role in deciding where any donations would go.

In a statement, Dave and Tina Eichen said they are "glad that the money will be donated to worthy charities," but they find it "odd" that they have no say and that charities they thought worthy have been passed over. One of their employees previously publicly said the Susan G. Komen Foundation and Hartland-based Team Kendal Kidz would get the money.

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But Fiani said that when the legal time limit to claim the funds expired recently, the law dictated that the Sheriff's Department, which was holding the money, turn the cash over to him.

He added that he could have kept it but said he wanted to help people instead.

"I'm just trying to do the right thing," said Fiani, who was buying an ice cream cake for his son's college graduation party when he found the money. "It's too bad they don't recognize the positive here. It's for kids."


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