Treasure in the trash
Debbie Cole, an employee at a solid waste operations facility was used to seeing nothing but trash, brought in by the truckload every day. But on this day, outside her office in the scale house, she discovered quite the opposite: a plastic bag of cold, hard cash. Turns out a Lummus armored car had “misplaced” a deposit bag and Ms. Cole was now holding $65,000 in missing Benjamins.
She immediately took the money to her supervisor who called the Sheriff’s office. Ms. Cole said she didn’t think twice about turning in the treasure, in fact, her first thoughts were of the poor Lummus driver and how much trouble he was going to face.
Everyone involved is lucky a person like Debbie Cole discovered the missing money and did the right thing. No doubt most of us, if we’re honest, might at least consider our options. Maybe we’d take a moment and figure out how we could slip in some mention of a reward for our good deed. There’s no denying that when I scan the rest of today’s news honesty, selflessness and good deeds don’t exactly make many appearances.
So what about you? If you were in Ms. Cole’s shoes, what’s your first thought as you hold $65,000 in your government-wage-receiving hands? If no one knew, what would you do?
4 Responses to “Treasure in the trash”
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I wouldn’t have thought twice about it…I would have turned it in. I’ve told my son “God is watching” often enough that it’s in my heart and mind at all times.
There have been times when shopping that the cashier forgets to scan something and then bags it…I speak up and let her know. Other times it’s been my mistake of forgetting to place something on the conveyor belt and when unloading my bags into my car I find that woops….I forgot to place something so I run back in to get it scanned and pay for it.
The most recent thing that happened to me was when I arrived home and was certain the cashier forgot to load an entire bag into my cart. I was a little annoyed and ended up going back and was told to just reshop those items I didn’t supposedly get and they just let me walk out. Two days later when I was vacuuming my car low and behold there was the bag I thought I didn’t recieve under the front seat. Apparently it rolled from the back of the car (I have a pt cruiser so it’s easy for things that are piled up to fall down the other side so I learned.) Luckily the things in the bag were all toilettries so there was nothing that could go bad thank goodness. When I told my son he was like “mom, does that mean you shop lifted?” Wow, that statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Technically I suppose he was right. I took him with me to the store and he heard me explain everything to the customer service guy who looked at me in disbelief and said how much he appreciated what I did. I’m not saying this to get praise of any kind. I’m saying this to show how important it is that we teach our children by example and that “God is always watching”. I can honestly say that my heart and conscience is always at peace.
Wow Sharon, that takes a lot of character to return that wallet when you’re in financial need. Could you share what happened with your finances? I’d love to hear about your experience in trusting God to provide for your needs.
I would do exactly what Ms.Cole did. God always shines light on darkness. If I took it I would be found out.
Plus, one needs always to do what is right. It is fun to dream about lots of cash but the embrassement if caught would be way too much for me to take. Old saying Honesty is the Best Policy.
I once found $950.00 in a wallet the day after I lost my job. I had just picked up my daughter who wanted to go to lunch with me and my mother who was in town to attend the homegoing of her sister. We were driving down a major street when I saw this wallet. I immediately pulled over, jumped out of the car and picked up the wallet. The wallet had muddy tracks on it and dirt and debris from I guess other cars running over it. No one in the car knew what was going on but I saw it so clearly. The temptation was so great to keep the money. Secretly in my heart, I was hoping not to find a drivers license but all the person’s information was in the wallet. I called a friend of mine as asked them to go with me to return the wallet and contents. I did return everything in the wallet. It does pay to be what we profess to be. I profess to be a christian woman, so I need to act like one and do the right thing, which your conscious will let you know what to do.