Woman, 73, Found With $36,000 Sewn in Her Clothing

A 73-year-old woman, lost and disoriented, was taken by police to a hospital, where doctors found $36,000 sewn into her underwear and hat, authorities here said Friday.

Lt. Robert Burnett said the woman, Muoi Thi Tran, is Vietnamese and might have been carrying the cash because of a cultural distrust of banks.

The woman’s family contacted police Friday afternoon after a local Vietnamese-language radio station broadcast information about her, Lt. Mike Schliskey said. Her daughter took her home from the hospital, police said. Her son had filed a missing-person report on her in Cerritos on Thursday.

Tran was found Thursday night in an apartment complex stairwell off Magnolia Street near Little Saigon. She told police she lived in Long Beach but couldn’t remember where.

Residents of the area who had called police “were concerned because this woman was walking around confused, like she didn’t know where she should be,” Burnett said. “We get those [calls] all the time, especially for older people who need help.”

A few hours later, doctors evaluating the woman at Pacifica Hospital in Huntington Beach discovered $26,000 in $100 bills sewn into her underwear. An additional $10,000 was in her hat.

Mai Cong, chairwoman of the Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a social services organization, said that although many elderly Vietnamese do not trust banks, it is rare for someone to walk around with that much cash.

Burnett said Tran told police she had traveled to Westminster earlier Thursday to visit a nephew, but could not remember the man’s name or the name of the daughter she said she lived with in Long Beach. Police could not find a missing-person report matching her description.

Schliskey said he was not sure why a national police computer network that handles missing-person reports hadn’t picked up the Cerritos report when Westminster police entered information about the woman.