Couple Finds $25,000, Knows They Can't Keep It. Works with Police To Find Rightful Owner
What is your integrity worth? I think that most of us would consider its value incalculable.
But those of us who’ve studied human nature a bit know that none of us are perfect angels. The unfortunate truth is that we all have our price, some threshold at which our integrity breaks.
That’s why it’s so encouraging to see people stand strong in the face of temptation. Just look at what Kristina Edwards from Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, did after an odd encounter with an ATM.
On Oct. 2, 2016, Edwards decided that she needed to do some grocery shopping, so she stopped at the ATM for a little cash. Instead of the $60 she punched up, though, the machine dispensed a whopping $380.
“As soon as that part opened [i.e., the slot for deposits], I heard another slot open,” she told the Delaware County Daily Times. “It literally started spitting $20s out.”
As a single mother of two children, Edwards certainly could’ve used the extra cash. But she realized it was another person’s deposit and didn’t belong to her.
She explained, “I’m a single mother of two, $380 to me is a lot. I was concerned about the person who is losing it.”
Samuel Stanici from Bichigi, Romania, experienced something similar in November, but the sum was much greater. After buying a cupboard online, he and his wife discovered a tin inside it stuffed with banknotes — €95,000 ($109,000 USD) worth of them.
“We thought it might be a trap, a setup, and we knew we had to get the money back to where it came from,” his wife Adela told the Associated Press. But when they traveled to the previous owner’s town to return the money, they learned something odd.
The seller hadn’t known the money was there and said that the cupboard had belonged to his father, who had since passed away. However, the prior owner provided the honest couple with a monetary reward.
A Georgia couple named Jeff and Michelle Green did much the same thing. But their story started with a businessman named Gautambhai Patel.
According to Inside Edition, Patel had a bag filled with money that he’d been planning to deposit in the bank. However, he inexplicably lost it.
Patel reached out to the Rincon Police Department, hoping that some kind-hearted individual would come upon his cash and return it. Doesn’t sound very likely, does it?
But that’s exactly what ended up happening. On its Facebook account, the Rincon Police Department wrote, “Our office began investigating, but hoped that whoever would find the bag would do the right thing and turn it in.
“Local residents Jeff and Mechelle Green are those amazing people! They recovered the bag and made sure it was returned to the rightful owner.
“We always encourage citizens to do the right thing both morally and legally! Thank you to the Greens!”
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