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Police Want Your Help Recovering $8,800 From Man's Dropped Wallet

LYNDHURST, N.J. (CBSNewYork) - It's a question of choosing money or following good morals.

Police say who took one man's money could be charged with a crime.

Shpend Haxhaj was looking forward to spending three weeks in Kosovo with his family. What he wasn't expecting was to lose more than $8,000 before even leaving the U.S.

"I said, 'Oh my God, where is the wallet?'" he told CBS2's Nina Kapur.

In a video chat, Haxhaj told Kapur he and his wife were on the way to the airport Monday afternoon when they made a pit stop at a Lyndhurst pharmacy.

Unknowingly, he dropped his wallet getting out of the car on the side of the road, scattering dozens of hundred dollar bills across the busy intersection.

"I lost everything. Lost my drivers license, credit card, $8,800," he said.

Security footage shows a man and woman in separate jeeps jumping out to steal the cash just minutes later.

"Majority of the money would help relatives who suffered during the war in Kosovo, to help them because still some of them are very poor," Haxhaj said.

"He wasn't going to Paris or London, this trip is to visit family, to visit his mother, father, brother's grave sites, to buy flowers for their grave sites," his daughter Arta told Kapur.

She says she's heartbroken for her father, who at 67 years old still works every day to make a living.

"This is all he's thinking about, he calls me numerous times a day asking any news, any news," she said.

"I couldn't sleep for a couple nights, it's my fault, when you get older this is what happens," he said.

Now police are asking for your help. If you have information, Lyndhurst Police would like you to call their anonymous tip line at (201) 804-9346.

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