> does anyone have experience with a parent doing something like this?

Yes. My great-uncle hid hoards of cash in the walls, glove compartments of 100+ cars in his yard and large farm. We suspect some of the stuffing in antique dolls was once cash, and we're almost certain it was hidden in various piles of newspapers and other random household items in his floor to ceiling "only had narrow paths through" house.

He was known to be hoarding cash for decades. His gave my parents the cash for their first home in the late 1970's, around $35,000. If that is not wild enough, he delivered it to them in black plastic garbage bags. THAT had to be hoot at the closing. I cannot imagine what would happen if someone tried that today.

He was a wealthy man in the depression, though I'm not exactly sure how. He ran a secondhand store so had cash to buy people's priceless family heirlooms, most of which he kept.

> Were you able to convince them to move the money into a bank?

No, never. No bank accounts ever. It sounds like at least you know where the money is, which is good. My great uncle died and his home was cleaned out with large shovels and heavy equipment. We know there was cash in the walls because there was some visible and salvageable after it was demolished. We know it was in car glove compartments because as one was picked up with a crane, the compartment opened and mostly rotted cash fell out.

What-ever he was saving the cash for, it never made it to that destination. Instead the cash ended up as rodent food and in the hands of strangers. Oh, strangers we had to pay for the service of cleaning everything up btw.

Please ask your father what he is saving the money for? If it's for his own retirement, then a deposit box, or a gun safe, or anywhere other than in tinfoil, PLEASE.