What a good kid... It is obvious his parents are raising him right.

Heartening? Way yes.

My personal experience?

Found a wallet in the street once with a over a thousand in cash, credit cards, and a paycheck. Called and returned it.

Two years later -

Early one Sunday morning I found a wallet outside a Chinese saloon on 82nd. 90 bucks and drivers license. Kept it.

Am certain that this child has a more consistent character.

Good for him! But I wish this wasn't newsworthy--that honesty was a common occurence.

Day of the National Championship game on Monday. Found a case of IPA beer at Safeway in West Linn. I returned it to the store where they said they would write a report for it. I sure hope the buyers of the beer returned to retrieve the suds.

I particularly like the actions of the Sandy Police officers actions. After dealing with so much garbage day in and day out you know how genuine the hand shake from Sgt. Ernie Roberts was and why the rest of the force chipped in.

What a heartwarming story. Thanks Jack.

Well, that disqualifies him from Voter Owned Election money.

Too bad, he'd be a shocking contrast to Sam.

BTW - There are kids/adults like this. I know someone last month who found $300 worth of Christmas gift money and returned it.

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. ~Alan Simpson

Justin is obviously a good person. Good for him.

But sad that returning money is news. In other words, our expectation seems to be that keeping it would be the default option. Sad.

Good for you Justin!

“I was so surprised it had been turned in,” she said. “And when I heard a teenage boy had turned it in, I got chills — so unexpected.”

Perhaps everybody being so blown away testifies to the power of negative stereotypes about teenage boys as much as it does about young Mr. Taylor's character.

When I was in high school, I lost a wallet containing about $400 while I was heading to the bank to deposit it. I got my money back, but only because the mother of the kid who found it wondered where he suddenly got the money he was waving around. Remembering how I felt at that time, I make a point that, if I ever find misplaced wallets or purses, the first thing I do is get it to someone in authority, and make sure to explain where and when I found it. I don't expect a refund: the only thing I expect is that someone else won't go through that panic.

This has only backfired twice. The first was when I found a wallet full of credit cards atop an automated Post Office machine about four years ago. Since this was near midnight, I drove to the address on the driver's license, only to find that the house had been demolished. I contacted two of the banks issuing the cards, only to be told they couldn't give me a mailing address for privacy reasons. I finally took it back to the Post Office, only to discover much later that the owner never came by to so much as ask about it. To this day, I don't know what happened, but I did what I could.

The second time, I found a wallet abandoned on the side of the road while out walking with my wife. No money, no cards, but out-of-town ID in it, so I put the wallet in an envelope and mailed it back. I made the mistake of putting a return address just in case the owner had moved and never updated the ID, and I'm very glad that I use a mail drop for everything. The owner drove all the way up from Austin to threaten the owner of the mail drop, screaming "There was a lot of money in here! You'd better tell me where to find this guy, or I'm calling the cops!" (Apparently, he did, and the cops asked "So he stole your wallet and took your money, but was willing to mail you your wallet back?")

That's why I'm glad this turned out so well for everybody. I still don't regret doing the right thing, and I'm certain he doesn't, either.

Yeah, I'm sure the code compliance officer (Ernie Roberts) puts up with a lot of garbage in Sandy.

All the same, it was decent of them to also reward the boy.

No, no. The news here is that Sandy has cops you can turn the wallet over to.
I found a wallet in a men's room at LAX, and my first thought was that the owner was probably trying to board somewhere and couldn't make his plane without his photo ID. The nearest ticket counter wouldn't take it -- I thought they could just page the guy which I guess I should have done -- so I went a couple of minutes out of my way to find a cop.
"Any money in it?" he asked. (I think there was a little but hadn't really checked.)
When he saw there wasn't much cash he just tossed the wallet in a desk like it didn't matter.
TSA may still have the guy who lost it in a room somewhere.