Joseph William Coyle (February 26, 1953 – August 15, 1993) was an unemployed

longshoreman A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number o ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

who, in February 1981, found $1.2 million in the street, after it had fallen out of the back of an armored car, and kept it. His story was made into the 1993 film '' Money for Nothing'', starring

John Cusack John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...

, as well as a 2002 book by

Mark Bowden Mark Robert Bowden (; born July 17, 1951) is an American journalist and writer. He is a national correspondent for ''The Atlantic''. He is best known for his book '' Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War'' (1999) about the 1993 U.S. military r ...

, '' Finders Keepers: The Story of a Man Who Found $1 Million''. Coyle passed out some of the money, in $100 bills, to friends and neighbors. He was arrested later in 1981 at

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the New ...

while trying to check into a flight to

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has bee ...

; police found $105,000 of the cash in envelopes taped around his ankles. He was tried, but found not guilty of theft by reason of temporary insanity. The armored car company, Purolator Armored Services, eventually recovered around $1 million of the original amount. Coyle struggled with

drug addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...

for most of his adult life. He committed suicide by hanging in his basement on August 15, 1993, less than a month before the film '' Money for Nothing'' was released. That was also around the time he was to be sentenced for his sixth drug conviction.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coyle, Joey 1953 births 1993 suicides People from Philadelphia Suicides by hanging in Pennsylvania Suicides in Philadelphia 1993 deaths American people convicted of drug offenses