Kansas City, Mo. ? A day after a “substantial” amount of cash and checks tumbled out of an armored truck and onto a busy highway, authorities said Wednesday most of the money has been returned.

A truck belonging to PSI Armored Inc. was traveling on Interstate 70 Tuesday morning when a canvas bag fell from a back door. Kansas City police said a light in the truck malfunctioned and failed to indicate that the door was open.

The bag, containing cash and checks from 40 stores in the Kansas City area, was hit by a car and some of the money spilled out. Some motorists stopped on the highway to retrieve money, and the bag itself was picked up by a man from suburban Blue Springs.

That man, 37, took the bag to Blue Springs police.

“He said he found the money on the highway and wanted to turn it in,” said Sgt. Mike Kruger. “It didn’t belong to him.”

Kruger would not disclose the amount of cash and checks in the bag but described it as “substantial.” He said it was returned to the armored car company by early Tuesday afternoon.

Jerry Spain, executive vice president of Topeka, Kan.-based PSI Armored, said Wednesday that he could not comment on the total amount that was in the bag, reported by The Kansas City Star to exceed $200,000.

“Pretty much the majority of it has been recovered,” he said. “We are doing an internal investigation on the cause.”

He said the company was trying to get in touch with the man who turned in most of the money and planned to offer him a reward.

About $8,000 was turned in to police in Kansas City. Spain said it did not appear that there had been a significant amount of loose currency flying around the road because the deposits were in individual bags inside the larger canvas bag.

But one motorist, Joann Paschal, said she saw a number of bills on the highway.

“I looked down and said, ‘That’s money,”‘ she said. “‘That’s $100, there’s $50, there’s $20.”‘

She retrieved a total of $5,600 and turned it all over to police.

“It was the right thing to do — period,” she told television station KCTV.