A dog that brings you money every day? How bizarre is that? Cindy Charles experienced this. She adopted a dog from the shelter. He was an older dog and she picked him because she thought that he would get looked over for adoption compared to the younger dogs. Her back yard did not have a proper fence, but the dog was very good at staying nearby so she would leave him unattended from time to time. However, after some time, the dog started coming home with dollar bills! This went on for a while, until one day, the police were at the door. Was this because of the dog? And why was the dog even coming home with money anyway? Bringing the dog home was so special for Cindy. Cindy got the dog all set up with things she had purchased just for him. She made sure he knew where home was and also introduced him to the dog door she’d installed. She was very pleased with all this. But then, her dog started coming home with dollar bills… Cindy could not figure out why her new dog, Toby, was bringing home money. She decided not to think too much of it, and just stashed the money to the side. She thought this was just going to be a weird perk of dog ownership and would get to the bottom of it later. But then, after a few more days, she received a mysterious letter. Cindy opened the letter and read through it. The contents shocked her. But the surprises didn’t stop there. Within hours of opening the letter, the police showed up at her door. Why were they there? There are so many questions surrounding this intriguing dog. To better understand this discovery and its significance, some backstory is required… Cindy was a twenty-five-year-old woman living alone in a nice suburban neighborhood. She felt like she really had most of her life together and it was a great feeling. She had a job and her house was paid off. However, her house was very quiet, even if she put on the TV or some music. She was missing the company of others. The last couple of Cindy’s relationships had not been great. After doing some research about pets that made good companions, however, she decided that she was going to go to the shelter and adopt a dog. She got in her car and went to the shelter. She was definitely not prepared for the surprise she was going to get… She decided on an older dog named Toby. She wanted to give him a good rest of his life. The first couple of months with him around went very well. He filled the companionship need that she had so desperately craved. But she was not prepared for this other “perk” of dog ownership! Toby came home inside one evening like usual and Cindy prepared his food. He waited patiently in the dining room as she fixed up his kibble and wet food. However, as she was bringing him his bowl, she realized that something was different about Toby. Something had been tucked into his collar! On the collar was a little bag. Cindy took the bag off and handed Toby his food, which he very much wanted. Cindy wondered who might have put this little pouch on her dog’s collar. More importantly, why had they done so? She opened the pouch and discovered something even more surprising! The pouch was filled with dollar bills! Cindy counted them, was shocked, and then counted them again. Could this really be happening to her? Altogether, they added up to quite a lot. Why would someone tuck a pouch filled with money into her dog’s collar? Cindy’s mind was full of questions. What was Cindy supposed to do now? Should she go to the police? She examined the pouch, the money, and the collar and couldn’t find any indidogion of how the money had gotten there. She needed to do something with this money, but she wasn’t sure at first what that something was going to be. Then she had a radical idea. Cindy mulled around the idea of calling the police, but decided that they weren’t really going to help her if she’d found the money. It wasn’t like she’d lost it or had it stolen from her. So, she put that idea out of her head. Instead, she called a friend. However, what she did after calling her friend is truly quite remarkable… Cindy did not tell her friend about the money she found. She kept that secret to herself. Instead, she asked if her friend would like to go out to dinner with her. Cindy even elected to pay for everything. Her friend, of course, accepted the offer for dinner. But she was stunned when she arrived at Cindy’s house. Cindy was wearing a very expensive outfit. Her friend had no idea how she had paid for it. Cindy wasn’t known for being the type to have a lot of extra cash lying around. But there Cindy was dressed very nicely. When they arrived at the restaurant, Cindy’s friend was in for an even bigger surprise. Cindy had made a reservation at Bern’s Steakhouse, an expensive restaurant in Tampa, Florida. Cindy’s friend asked how Cindy had managed to pay for the new outfit and now for dinner given what her friend already knew about her. Cindy had several options for answering her friend. But what she said will blow your mind… Cindy told her friend that she had gotten a new job with a top salary. This, of course, was certainly not the case. For all Cindy knew, this was a freak occurrence that would never happen again. However, her friend believed it without a second guess, figuring this was Cindy telling her the news. Cindy, meanwhile, was getting herself into trouble. In all actuality, Cindy worked a local daycare center. Nevertheless, later that week she went out on a date and insisted on paying for the man she was going out with. Again, she picked a luxurious dining location. Had the dog really brought back that much money for her to be living so large? Cindy thought it was quite convenient that every time she let the dog out to wander around outside, he would come back with a pouch full of money. She stashed the money aside each time and used it to fulfill her fantasies of living big. She didn’t bother to find out more about the money, until one day… One day, Cindy got the mail, and an unexpected letter was waiting for her in the mailbox. Mysteriously, the sender was someone she didn’t recognize. Usually, Cindy threw away letters that she didn’t recognize immediately, but something made her open this one. Perhaps it was coincidence. What she saw inside surprised her. The design of the letter was very ornate and the handwriting on the outside of the envelope, as well as on the inside of the letter was very neat and tidy. She read through it. When she realized what it said, Cindy got the chills immediately. This is what it said… The letter was written entirely in Chinese! Cindy went to translate it and when she read through the translation, her chills turned into feeling sick to her stomach. She tried several different translating websites to ensure that that was really what it said. While she got a couple of variations, the core of the text was the same. The letter, when translated, said: “We gave you the money, now leave us alone. We’ll finish the dog off when it gets back to us to clear all tracks.” What was the letter going on about? What did the writer of the letter mean when they said “finish off the dog”? Cindy did not like this one bit. What was going on? For a moment, Cindy didn’t know what to do anymore. What was she even supposed to do? Should she call the police? She couldn’t go to her friend, because then her friend would find out that Cindy had made it all up about her new job. Cindy paced around her house thinking about all her options. So then, she decided to do this one thing. Cindy decided she was going to keep entirely quiet. She hoped that no one would find out that she had even received the money. Then it wouldn’t matter. She was still afraid that she might not be the intended recipient of the money. She was beginning to suspect it wasn’t actually for her. Then, she nearly jumped out of her skin when the doorbell rang… Vowing that she would never let the dog wander past the yard again, Cindy hastily put the letter away and went to the door. When Cindy opened up the door, the police were standing there. Did this have anything to do with the dog? Cindy was terrified that something terrible was going on. She could barely even speak! The police asked Cindy if they could come in. She had no choice but to let them. Cindy felt like everything was going all wrong. She was afraid the police were there because of the dog and the money. But, it soon became clear that the police knew nothing about the dog at all. So why had they come to see Cindy? Cindy was so full of questions. If the police were not there about the dog and the money, why were they there at all? The police were there for a good reason, but it would be very hard to understand why they are there without some more explanation. See, it had something to do with Cindy’s behavior. See, Cindy’s friend had heard about Cindy’s fancy date with this new guy. Her friend also thought it was strange that Cindy had bought an expensive outfit and paid for a fancy dinner. Cindy’s friend had told the whole friend group about this, while telling all of them not to tell Cindy or anyone else about this. One of the friends thought this whole thing sounded very fishy. The new guy, the new clothes, the sudden money. Cindy’s story about a new job didn’t add up either. This friend knew immediately that things were not right. When she got home, even though she’d promise she wouldn’t say a thing, she decided to take action. The friend decided to call the police and explain the story. She told the police that Cindy was not at all capable of paying for such things. Everything was very suspicious. She did this with Cindy’s well-being in mind, it was only for Cindy’s benefit. The friend was afraid that Cindy’s date was up to no good and would take advantage of her! The police naturally understood that the friend wanted to do a well-check on Cindy. The friend was very concerned about Cindy’s health. They made all the arrangements to check up on Cindy and moved forward with their plans. So, back to the police. They entered Cindy’s house. This was the reason they gave… The police wanted to talk to Cindy about her safety. They said more and more women had been in Cindy’s situation in the past. They didn’t want the same thing to happen to Cindy. Cindy thought the police were referring to the dog and the money. This was not the case, as the police continued with the story… The police didn’t want to rat out Cindy’s friend so they tried to beat around the bush with the whole story. But Cindy didn’t understand why this wasn’t about the dog without more of the story. What the police ended up telling her stunned her. It was something she had not expected at all. How did the police come up with the story? The point the police were trying to get at was that they wanted to protect Cindy from a potential predatory man. Her friend had mentioned he might be a loverboy. The police were concerned Cindy might be a victim of his. They didn’t want her to become a victim of trafficking either! Cindy’s reaction was quite extraordinary… Cindy became very angry at the officers. How could they say such a thing. Her date was a nice young man and he certainly wasn’t the one who was funding her. She had paid for his dinner, after all! Cindy had grown somewhat proud of her new monetary status. When Cindy revealed all of this, the officers were very surprised. The agents had looked into the situation. They believed that Cindy could easily fall for a predatory man pretending to be some loverboy. She had the perfect profile for it after all: single, lower-income, simple home. The agents asked how she could possibly afford so many expensive dinners if she wasn’t getting money from a man. What was Cindy going to say now? Cindy finally decided to be honest. She couldn’t avoid it any longer. She told the police about the dog. The officers asked Cindy to come with them to the police station. She dutifully agreed. But what happened next was shocking. The officers didn’t believe an ounce of what Cindy was saying. What was going on? Were the officers still thinking that Cindy was being harassed by some man? Did they think that Cindy wanted to keep this hidden because she was being threatened by him? However, there was more to this situation than Cindy or her friends realized. What was going on in the background was as follows… The police had been researching some interesting goings-on in the city recently. Strange happenings. Money coming from nowhere, people going missing, illicit items being sold on the black market. They were obviously concerned that Cindy was involved, even unknowingly. They called in a team to take action. What they told Cindy surprised her… They asked Cindy for permission to search her entire house. If Cindy did not want to give them this permission, they indidoged that they were going to obtain a warrant through the courts. They weren’t going to play nice anymore. Cindy wasn’t sure if there was a way out of it. But why did the police want to do a search anyway? The police no longer believed that Cindy was being taken advantage of by some predatory loverboy. However, they didn’t have enough evidence to believe the dog story either. That just seemed too convenient. They were beginning to think that Cindy was engaged in illegal practices, selling illegal substances to make this much money. They told her this, and then… Cindy broke down in tears. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing and how it had come to this. She realized she should have said something about the money much sooner. She consented to the search and said she was really telling the truth. Then, she suddenly remembered that she had received the letter. Cindy brought this up with them. The investigating agents went to the house and looked at the letter Cindy provided. Of course, they had to run it through their own translation software, because it was still written in Chinese. They read it over several times and discussed matters amongst themselves. You’ll be amazed at what they said to each other… One agent looked at the other and said, “We’ve seen this before. In fact, we’ve got another one on our hands.” The other agent replied, “They must think they can outsmart us.” Cindy was completely shocked. Did the police know who the sender of the letter was? She had so many questions! This was not the case, however. The agents were actually thinking that Cindy had written the letter herself as a clever distraction to cover up the fact that she was engaged in illegal practices. The agents began the full search of her house, which she had already consented to. Then, they discovered something remarkable… They searched the rooms one by one, looking for proof of illegal activity. Of course, they found none. However, as they searched the rooms, they saw a pouch lying on a dresser. The pouch was exactly as Cindy had described it in her dog story. They took the pouch to the desk to examine it further. Inside the pouch, were several dollar bills. Had Cindy put these there to make her story seem more legitimate? A few agents continued to search for more evidence. Most of them thought that Cindy had put the money there herself. However, they found no other evidence of illegal activity. The agents confronted Cindy… Cindy said that this was indeed the pouch had returned home with. She was relieved the agents had found it. She knew this was the proof that she was telling the truth. Of course, the officers then admitted that they didn’t believe her and continued their search. Just then, a woman came in to the police station. Suddenly, a lot of things came together. The lady who came in was Cindy’s neighbor. She had seen the shenanigans going on at Cindy’s house and wanted to provide what information she had. She told the officers that she had been seeing a dog walk into Cindy’s house for the past week. However, there was something suspicious about it… In fact, the neighbor had seen this dog being put in front of Cindy’s door several times over the past week by some strange man. The police asked Cindy’s neighbor if she could make an official on-the-record statement. The neighbor agreed. Would this be enough to prove what Cindy had been saying? Was she telling the truth after all? By now, the house search was finished. The officers of course found nothing suspicious that would tie Cindy to any illegal activity. This, combined with the neighbor’s official statement, had the officers deciding to believe Cindy’s story after all. But who was behind the money in the purse and what was going on? The officers decided that they would need to do some more investigating and get to the bottom of everything. Something was very fishy about the entire situation. So, they decided to watch Cindy’s house until the dog or the stranger appeared. Once their plan was set, it was time to put it in motion. It did not take long for them to figure it out. The very next day, Cindy let the dog out as planned. The dog wandered off into the nearby woods. The cops waited. Several hours later, a man drove up and dropped the dog back off. The police arrested him at once. You’ll never believe who this man was… The man belonged to the mafia! The dog was the go-between to pay someone off! When the dog was adopted from the shelter, things got completely mixed up. Cindy was allowed to keep the cash she’d already gotten, but would have to keep the dog indoors. Everyone else was arrested! Since Cindy wasn’t getting daily money from the dog anymore, she would need to be more frugal. She was mostly glad she wasn’t in jail! *This is a made-up story for entertainment purposes. The photos that have been used are Stockfoto’s.