We have all heard the term, “God works in mysterious ways.” We have also heard the term when we were kids, “Finders keepers..losers weepers.” For the legal eagles out there, you were even told that “possession is nine-tenths of the law.” I want you to keep all of these in mind when reading further.
I came across a story out of Florida about a guy who found $30K in a fanny pack at a Wawa. The story goes as follows.
A young man by the name Luis Salazar had stopped into a Wawa gas station in Riviera Beach to use the restroom when he found a fanny pack hanging on the safety railing.
Immediately, he tried to locate the bag’s rightful owner by asking around in the store. But when he was unable to find the owner, he unzipped it to see if there was any identification inside that might help him locate the owner. Upon unzipping, he found money. A sh*tload of money! $30,023, to be exact!
“My body was just numb, just seeing all this money that belonged to somebody else,” Salazar told local media.
After using security footage to help them figure out what had happened to the bag full of cash, police contacted Salazar to tell him the owner was at the station. When Salazar handed over the fanny pack full of cash, he said that the owner was crying.
Media footage showed the owner opening up the bag and realizing every bill was accounted for.
The owner of the money, who asked not to be identified (for fear of looking so stupid and careless in front of the public) said, “I was pretty astonished that anybody would have done that.”
Salazar said he never even thought about taking the cash. “It’s not my money to take,” he said. “I was not raised that way.”
Truly a happy ending. The Dudley Doright feels good about what they did. The owner got their $30k back. No reward seems to have been given. No word on what the owner of the money’s religion was. The owner of the money wants to take Salazar out to dinner, rather than actually rewarding him. I wonder if they will be eating at Wawa.
This takes us to the second feel-good, money got lost but found story.
Jaydon Cintron, an employee at the Kinston, North Carolina. Chick-fil-A, found nearly $10,000 in the bathroom during his break and returned it. For doing such a good deed, he was offered a $500 reward, but initially turned it down. I repeat, initially.
Cintron found two white envelopes next to the toilet while on his break, one with around $5,000 that was labeled First Citizens Bank and one with $4,333 labeled Truist Bank, said media reports.
“I just picked it up, and I brought it to the human resources.” “I was in the right place at the right time, but more than that, my faith teaches me to do what’s right and to care for others.”
“Knowing how devastating it would be to lose something like that, I just wanted to make sure it got back to its owner. I’m grateful I could help and I’m humbled by the response,” he continued.
He said he didn’t keep the money because “that’s not what Jesus would have done. That’s not what God would have wanted.”
“Money is useless without character,” he added.
The owner of the money reportedly came forward to the police to claim it. He then offered Cintron $500 for returning the money, but Jaydon declined at first.
He claimed that he didn’t expect a reward for doing something guided by his faith. “I don’t want anything out of this,” Cintron said. “I did this because that’s what Jesus would do.”
After declining the money several times, he finally accepted it.
“We’re grateful for Team Members like Jaydon who demonstrate integrity and a genuine care for others,” Kinston Chick-fil-A Owner-Operator John McPhaul put out in an email to the media and public.
Kinston Police Chief Keith Goyette added, “A lot of people will, unfortunately, take that money and run with it, but kudos to that employee at Chick-Fil-A, [he] definitely deserves a reward.”
So this begs the question, what would you have done? Remember what was written at the very beginning of this article. Does that matter to you? Do you think about God when it comes to moments like these? Did God want you to have the money, so this is why it was put in front of you? Or is God testing you to see what you would do with someone else’s money?
These are interesting and debatable moral and ethical questions. As for the legal ramifications. Is this stealing? Is finding something and keeping it, stealing? And how much effort are you supposed to put into finding the owner or returning it? It certainly makes for some good commenting. Don’t forget to leave your comment below, right here at SFL.media.
