A Goodwill employee finds $42,000 in donated clothing and returns it to the owner.
The discovery came during a regular day on the job as Andrea Lessing, a goodwill employee, was performing her routine quality examination on closing items on the sales floor. As she pulled out two sweaters tied together from a donation box, she felt something heavy left. She first assumed the items were just books. When she pulled the sweaters apart, to her astonishment, she found lots of envelopes filled with $100 bills. The cash was in $100 bills and totaled $ 42,000 dollars.
Andrea Lessing is used to discovering unique treasures in the varied collection of donated items her store receives daily. She always tries to be a good example to her daughter, so she immediately did the right thing and reported the cash finding. Luckily, the store's manager was then able to locate and return the money to the donator who had mistakenly placed the cash in the wrong box.
Andrea, mother of a six year old girl, admitted it was hard for her to do with that much money. Some might have thought that it was Andrea's lucky day, having a small fortune. However, the temptation to keep the cash by herself was just a passing thought. Andrea's honest nature inspired her to do the right thing.
Without hesitation, she handed the cash over to the store's manager so they could find the right owner. Andrea was not expecting a reward, but the owner of the money surprised her with a 1000 reward. Andrea was teary eyed and overcome with joy as her "good deed" flowed right back to her. She plans to spend part of the reward money on a memorable birthday party for her daughter.