Envelope with $40,000, lost in parking lot, returned by Good Samaritan
Sharon Davis of Oregon feels that she is a lucky woman after a Good Samaritan found and returned her lost envelope containing a large amount of money. As reported by KPTV Fox 12, Sharon was in the Sunnyside Marketplace in Clackamas and was about to make a down payment on a home. She was carrying a manila envelope with paperwork related to the sale as well as a $38,000 cashier’s check and $2000 in cash. It was only when the 71-year-old woman returned to her car after picking up a Starbucks coffee that she realized the envelope was missing.
At that point a distraught Ms. Davis began an exhaustive search of the area and asked store owners in the plaza if anyone had turned the envelope in, but had no success. She told KATU, “I was so stunned and so stressed, I swear I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke.” Sharon then called the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office for their help. Unbeknownst to her, Brian DiCarlo, a very honest man, had found the envelope on the wet ground. Brian, a 23-year-old student at Portland State University said, “It wasn’t dirty, it wasn’t all wet. She must have just dropped it. I must have been moments behind her.”
Brian picked up the envelope he originally thought was trash and looked inside to find the valuable contents. Stunned, he told KPTV, "My first thought is that this person is a wreck, whoever this is for this is, they are losing their mind trying to figure out where they left it, retracing their steps." Without a thought of keeping the money, Mr. DiCarlo called the sheriff’s office hotline and reported his discovery, then handed it over to the authorities. “This is all for her stuff. This is, her work and so if she loses it I mean, she can’t do what she was hoping to do and so I would have hoped that someone would have done it for me,” said the do-gooder.
Deputies used the paperwork inside the envelope to track down Ms. Davis, who was still combing the parking lot. When officers returned the envelope to Sharon she was overjoyed and contacted Brian to thank him. Brian recalled, “She called me that night. Was very appreciative of me returning it and was very emotional because of it.”
Ms. Davis sent Brian a note of thanks and a $300 reward. The humble student said, “Just to hear what it meant to her was enough reward for me to do it.”
