A homeless man found $2400. What he did with it shattered our hearts
Imagine if you found $2,400 in the street. That’s a lot of money, right? So what would you do? Some might hand it in to the police; some may try to find the owner on their own; others still may keep the whole wad of cash.
Now, consider this: what if you found this money on the street. . . and you were homeless? That’s exactly what happened to an anonymous homeless man in Langford, British Columbia in mid-June. That amount of money could mean food, shelter —a home. But when this man found the money, he immediately turned it in so that the rightful owner could be found.
“This is an incredible display of honesty and selflessness,” Constable Alex Bérubé, spokesperson of the West Shore Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said in a statement after the money was turned in. “If we are not successful in identifying the rightful owner within 90 days, this good Samaritan will receive the cash.”
The rightful owner of the money was found, but Bérubé was determined to track down the kind man who had given this tremendous amount of money back when he was so badly in need. “After hearing this story and seeing how this case touched so many people, I took a personal interest in finding this man, looking for him everywhere while on and off shift,” Bérubé said in an RCMP statement.
Meanwhile, the story had inspired so many people that Mike Kelly of Victoria Buzz set up a GoFundMe to raise the $2,400 the man had turned in, in order to find him. The GoFundMe has raised over double —over $5,000, in fact, donated by 221 people.
“. . . I needed to tell [the man] about how the community had rallied together to help him,” Bérubé continued in the statement. When he found the man, Bérubé explained that he had thousands of dollars waiting for him. But once again, this anonymous guy with a heart of gold proved to be selfless beyond belief. “His response surprised me yet again, when instead of asking how to collect it, he asked me how to donate it to Our Place and other food service providers for people in need,” Bérubé explained.
The RCMP figured that perhaps he needed some time to process the information, and gave him another night to think about it. But when the man came back the next day, he still wanted to donate the money. . . and all he wanted was a job. Now, Kelly, who set up the GoFundMe, is donating the money to the appropriate organizations and is currently trying to find him one.
“When I first heard about this man and what he had done, I started thinking of how we could help him,” Kelly said in the RCMP statement. “Here is a man who is facing many challenges, yet despite that, he chose to do the right thing and see that another person wasn’t left short thousands of dollars and facing the challenges that would bring them. Now I’m going to do everything I can to help find him a job that fits his personal situation, and will hopefully move him closer to overcoming his current challenges.”
OK, so this is such a sweet, inspiring story, and our hearts have grown ten times their size. There are so many wonderful parts: Mike Kelly for spearheading his efforts to reward a man who deserved it, the RCMP for actively searching out the man, and, of course, the anonymous donator himself. Thanks for reminding us that the world is a beautiful place.
(Image via GoFundMe)
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