Michigan woman cleared of crime after bank finds money

Accused of stealing money from work, Lisa Hansen has maintained her innocence.

She said after leaving her receptionist job at a Panopoulos salon last Sept. 3, she had placed a bag containing $80 in cash and $345 in cheques that belonged to the company in the night depository of a Huntington National bank branch, just as she was supposed to do.

Several days later, her manager told her that the money was missing. He fired her but promised that the company wouldn't press charges if she returned the cash and the cheques.

The Grand Rapids woman said she did nothing wrong. She was subsequently arrested, jailed and punished.

Then, on Aug. 9, a bank worker found the money - right where Hansen had said she'd left it nearly a year earlier. Huntington officials will say only that the bag had become lodged and hidden within the depository.

"I cried," Hansen, 25, told The Grand Rapids Press.