U.S. Senate candidate Champ Edmunds of Missoula had his honesty tested over the weekend as he and a fellow deacon discovered an abandoned backpack stuffed with cash outside their church.

The two were busy performing a deaconal act of service by doing maintenance on some backed-up toilets in the church basement. They opened up an oft-unused door to help air-out the room when they saw a backpack in a pile of leaves in the stairwell.

"We opened up the backpack and there was over $12,000 in cash in the backpack and some cellphones" Edmunds said. "The police ended up saying there were six cellphones, there was a computer tablet in there too. We called and turned it into the police and it turns out the identification of the guy who they found, actually has a warrant out for his arrest."

Edmunds says it was one of those surreal experiences people usually just dream about.

"When I said [to my fellow deacon], 'there's a backpack here' and started opening it up, he jokingly said 'well, is it full of money?' I looked up and said 'uhhh yeah, it actually is full of money,'" Edmunds said. "It's something you dream about all of your life, but when it really happens you just gotta say 'it's not my money,' so we called the police and see if we could find out whose money it was."

Edmunds said that the police now have the backpack, the money and other items. It is unclear what will happen to the money if no one claims it, but Edmunds will at least have a good story to share at his campaign stops this election season.

Champ Edmunds interview:

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