(CNN) — A Virginia family on an outing found what turned out to be nearly $1 million in cash in the middle of a road.

To get out of the house after weeks of sheltering in place, David and Emily Schantz and their two sons were taking a long drive Saturday from their home in Caroline County, just south of the Potomac.

A car in front of them swerved to avoid what appeared to be a big bag of trash in the road, Maj. Scott Moser of the Caroline County Sheriff’s Department told CNN. Emily Schantz, behind the wheel, didn’t have time to do the same, and she ran over the bag.

She stopped their pickup truck to get the bag out of the traffic lane. Noticing another bag in the ditch, they picked up that, too, and threw both in the truck.

When they got home that evening, Moser said, they went to throw the bags in the trash, and noticed they were marked “postal service.” Thinking it was lost mail, they opened a bag — and found bundles of cash.

The Schantzes called a sheriff’s deputy whom they knew from church, and he encouraged them to call the sheriff’s office.

“We went out there and determined it was, in fact, cash. It was in two bags and the total was close to $1 million,” Moser said. Documents in the bag had deposit information.

The sheriff’s department turned the money over to the U.S. Postal Service, which is now looking into the matter so the money can get to its rightful owner.

“Who it actually belonged to, where it was going, we haven’t released any of that,” Moser said.

“It’s really a credit to just the character and fiber of the family,” Moser said. “I’m sure it’d be difficult to make that decision. … But they did the right thing.”

There was no question, Emily Schantz told TV station WTVR. “It didn’t belong to us.”