A Fresno Applebee’s employee was a bit surprised to find a bag with $32,000 left behind in a booth Wednesday night. What might even be more surprising, he immediately turned it over to the cops. What might be even more surprising than that, the money was legit and returned to its rightful owners.
The restaurant server who discovered the cash did not want to be named, but the couple who temporarily lost all of that coin spoke with ABC News:
Erika and Bertha Gonzalez walked into the Fresno Police Department to find the treasure they figured no one would ever return. It took a cash counting machine to add up the $32,000 the mother and daughter mistakenly left in a booth at Applebee’s.
“I think she took it out when she took out her wallet to pay and she didn’t put it back in her bag,” Erika said.
The two made several stops Wednesday, including a bank. They didn’t originally plan on carrying the cash all day.
“We were going to deposit it to the safe box and they told us they didn’t have any available,” Erika said.
The couple runs a rental property business and a Bay area restaurant. They realized they had lost the money on Wednesday night, so they called the cops.
Sammy Ashworth is the detective who first learned a large sum of money was found at the restaurant, then he got a call from the family.
“They described the bag that it was in and the denomination, and I determined that, yes, it was their money,” Ashworth said. “It was legally obtained, and they were just an average working family that had made a mistake and left their money behind in a restaurant.”
Luckily for the family, Mr. Potter was not the one to find the missing money (stupid Uncle Billy!). Instead, it was found by a server who might just be the best human being on the planet.
The server who waited on the family, and also found the money, didn’t want to talk about his good deed. In fact, Applebee’s managers aren’t even sure he will take any reward from the company or the Gonzalez family.
“I don’t know that he would accept it honestly,” Applebee’s area director Carrie Hellyer said. “He’s just not that guy. He made it very clear that he did it because it was the right thing to do, not that he wanted anything in return.”
What a great guy. Also, maybe this family should just go ahead and open a savings account.
