LAWRENCE — First, Methuen businessman Ken Daher said the money was his. Then Lawrence tow truck driver Manuel Ovalles put in a claim. Now the state is looking for a hefty chunk of the $178,496 found in a shoe store's safe that was dumped in a vacant lot on Cross Street last fall.
The Massachusetts Estate Recovery Unit is laying claim to $162,199 of the found money for medical services rendered to Sally Daher, the former shoe store owner, prior to her death in 2001, according to papers recently filed with both the Lawrence Police Department and Essex County Probate Court.
State law allows the estate recovery unit to recoup health care costs previously paid by the state from a person's probate estate. A probate estate "includes property a person possesses at the time of death and that descends to the heirs," according to information on the unit's Web site.
Attorney James Bowers, who represents the Police Department, said it appears the state "is trying to recoup what they've already paid out," whether it be for Sally Daher's nursing care or medical expenses, he said.
Because the money came from a building formerly owned by Sally Daher, "they are trying to see if they are entitled to any of it," Bowers said.
Ken Daher said he will not fight the state over the payment.
"If the state is owed anything, we are more than happy to turn it over. Absolutely," said Daher.
The state's involvement in the case is the latest twist in a story of long-hidden treasure found. Ultimately, the rightful owner or parties entitled to the money will be determined in court, unless an agreement is reached otherwise, Bowers said.
Sally Daher owned Daher's Shoes at 85-89 Swan St. in Methuen, but turned the store over to her children in 1973.
The store was later rented to Ramez Yousses, a shoe repairman who decided last fall to get rid of the old safe in the store's bathroom. Yousses said the store was broken into previously and he felt having the safe on the premises was a liability.
Yousses hired Ovalles, who owns his own tow truck, to remove the safe. Ovalles took the safe from the store, hoping to cash it in as scrap metal. But when a local junkyard refused to take it, Ovalles dumped the safe in a vacant lot next to his home on Cross Street in Lawrence.
Firefighters on routine patrol later found the safe and alerted police. When the safe was cut open, police found $178,496 in cash packed in plastic Daher's shopping bags, an old White Nike T-shirt and blue Arlington Trust bank envelopes.
The Daher family was unaware the money or anything else was left in the safe, which was in the shoe store for 40 years, according to a police report. Ken Daher, the current owner of the shoe store building, told police his mother must have owned the safe years ago.
Widowed in the 1960s, Sally Daher sold factory seconds and overstock from Majestic Shoe Co. to support her four children: Charles, John, Ken and her daughter Joyce, who is now deceased.
The recovery unit learned about the safe money after being alerted to a story in The Eagle-Tribune Dec. 4.
Roy Gelineau, a Salem, Mass., attorney, later filed a petition to be appointed the administrator of Sally Daher's estate.
"Please do not release the funds you are holding until the rightful owner of the funds is determined by a court of competent jurisdiction," Gelineau wrote to police Chief John Romero.
Gelineau could not be reached for comment for this story.
Bowers said he will soon be filing court paperwork that outlines the claims to the money police have received. When the money will be awarded or divided remains unclear.
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