A California teen returned a lost wallet filled with cash to its original owner, who turned out to be a military veteran.
According to Newsiosity, Tommy O’Connor, a high school senior, was at a 7-Eleven in Fremont, California buying a soda when he found a wallet on the ground. Much to his surprise, the wallet had $2,300 in cash inside.
Rather than pocketing the money, O’Connor ran the wallet back to his school and handed it over to a teacher’s assistant to be returned to its original owner. He said that he didn’t even count the money when he first picked up the wallet.
“I didn’tcount it when I saw it,” Tommy said. “I just thought it was probably someone’s rent or something.”
The wallet contained 23 $100 dollar bills.
The teacher’s assistant, Anna Gomez, said that Tommy never considered doing anything but the right thing.
“He was so concerned about finding the wallet’s owner,” Gomez told the Mercury News. “No other option even occurred to him. He immediately knew what he had to do.”
Gomez and O’Connor went to the school’s principal for help finding the wallet’s owner. In the wallet, they found the owner’s Veterans ID card, which had his name. After they delivered the wallet, the veteran confirmed that the cash was in fact for his rent.
Tommy’s actions are especially notable considering his family lives on a fixed income and he didn’t have lunch money of his own the day before finding the wallet.
“With us living month-to-month, it is a big chunk of money and I’m so proud of him that he did that,” Tommy’s father, Ron O’Connor, told KPIX.
When his mother heard what he had done, she sent him a heartfelt text.
“I’m very proud of you son,” O’Connor’s mother texted him. “Ms. Kalra called me. Wow your one in a million. Love you to the moon and back.”
O’Connor replied: “You should be thanking yourself … You raised me.”
“It’s just doing something I wish everyone else would do,” Tommy told KPIX.
“I’m just proud that he did the right thing, and hopefully all of my children would’ve done the same thing,” Ron O’Connor said.
O’Connor received a $50 reward for returning the wallet.
Sources: Newsiosity, KPIX, Mercury News / Photo Credit: KPIX
