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Honest homeless man finds, turns in backpack with more than $41,000 in cash and travelers' cheques
By adamg on Mon, 09/16/2013 - 7:34am
A Chinese national who managed to forget his backpack with $2,400 in US currency, $39,500 in American Express travelers cheques and his passport while shopping in the South Bay Mall yesterday got everything back thanks to an honest man.
Police report the man, who listed a homeless shelter as his address, flagged down officers patrolling the mall around 5:45 p.m. on Saturday to hand over the black backpack he'd found in front of the TJ Maxx.
At about 6:47pm, officers were contacted by an employee from the Best Buy store in South Bay Mall. A male customer informed the staff he lost his backpack containing a large sum of money. Officers returned to South Bay Mall and transported the customer to District C-6 (South Boston). The owner of the bag was positively identified by his passport and the property found by the Good Samaritan was returned to him.
Police did not identify the man who found the backpack or whether the bag's owner offered him a reward.
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Comments
Good
Good Samaritan..
But seriously, who carries that much cash and travelers cheques around?
I know when I travel abroad, I try to keep the cash to a bare minimum and won't walk around with that many cheques in my pocket.
Sometimes you have to wonder where people's brains are...
South Bay
Last I checked South Bay wasn't Rodeo drive, unless he was planning on buying 40 flat screen tv's at Best Buy, there isn't a single store in that shopping area that you could spend that kind of money in. Target, Marshalls, TJMax, Old Navy - nope.
I feel like there's more to this story than just the good samaritan aspect of it. I'd like more details on the guy who's carrying that much money around.
One last thing, if I knew I had $40K in my backpack, that backpack would not be removed from my body. I'd even drive with that thing on. WTF.
Chinese nationals routinely
Chinese nationals routinely carry that much money in travelers checks when they travel abroad. Then they blow it on 1 Gucci bag. He probably got lost on his way to Boylston St.
Traveler's Checks and Cash
Traveler's checks are secure. You can't just walk up and claim to be the owner and cash them. They allow the owner to walk into a bank and walk out with cash, while the rest are only negotiable by their owner.
Anyone who travels abroad generally has a fair amount of cash on them, since credit cards don't always work outside of their country of origin, and debit cards rely on similar transboundary relationships.
The amounts he had on him made perfect sense to me, given the situation.
I've personally carried $25k
I've personally carried $25k in cash and/or bullion in a briefcase in Boston many times. Go down to Bromfield Street and you could spend $100k or more quite easily, if you are looking for gold or silver.
Good Honest Man
Good man, God will definitely bless him for his honesty
Just as....
God has blessed him with the honor of being homeless?
No, no
THAT is a test of humility! He's going to be like Lazarus in heaven instead of that rich Chinese guy who will be burning in hell.
See! The Bible is right again!
Now if we can just get back
Now if we can just get back to executing people who eat shellfish (prohibited by the Bible) instead of carrying on about gay marriage (not directly alluded to in there).
So...
Being rich is a sin, being poor is a test of humility? Is that what the Magic Book says?
That depends
Are you "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879", or "Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915"?
(borrowed from Emo Philips)
No good deed goes unpunished
We live in a pretty harsh and unforgiving world.
If I was in such a desperate situation as this homeless guy, I'm afraid I'd keep the cash. I'm a decent person with morals and was raised by decent and honorable folks, but I'd understand why such a person would keep it. Desperate people gotta do desperate things to survive.
On a side note: Asians [not specifically Americans of Asian descent] are notorious for carry large amounts of cash on their person and in their homes. It's a cultural thing. They make great targets for home invasions, robberies, hustles, for this reason.
Electronics?
Chinese people are known to visit the USA to buy large amounts of electronics that can be resold back home for a profit. A recent story about Apple products states:
Chinese workers putting in long hours for low pay to make the iPhone 5C, often in nasty conditions that Western employees wouldn’t tolerate, and then ship it 12,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean, where it’s available for $549 U.S. In the Apple store in Beijing, however, those same workers would have to ante up the equivalent of $733 U.S. to purchase the same plastic device.
All I can say is
Kudos to the homeless man who was honest enough to turn the Chinese tourist's knapsack that contained lots of cash and travelers' checks instead of keeping the cash for himself! This guy sounds like a oner, and there are far too few people who're that honest, especially nowadays, which is quite sad.