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Carlos and Barbara Landeros only wanted a little Valentine's Day romance.
So last Thursday, the Vallejo, Calif., couple decided to drive to San Francisco for a swanky romantic dinner. And of course no romantic outing would be complete without a pre-dinner trip to the Golden Gate Bridge.
But as soon as they pulled into Vista Point, Barbara spotted a black camera bag without an owner in sight.
With tourists running to and fro, she stood guard over the bag in hopes the owner would soon return.
"We wait about 45 minutes before we picked up the bag," said Barbara Landeros at her Vallejo home. "Because we didn't know who it belongs to."
With no one returning for the bag, Barbara eventually decided to take a peek inside. At first she saw a camera lens, then credit cards, then an envelope of cash -- lots of cash.
"I got nervous at first, it could be drug money," she said. "I was scared."
They finally decided the thing to do was take the bag to San Francisco's Hall Of Justice to turn it in to the police.
"He said, 'Good for you guys,'" she recalled of the policeman who took the report. "'I'm proud of you.'"
It turns out that wad of cash inside the bag was no small sum.
It totaled $11,060.42. Police used the credit cards to trace the bag to a visiting Chinese tourist called Mark in San Francisco.
Mark, who didn't want his last name used, said he was excited to get the call from police. "When the officer give me everything, and he said, 'happy Valentine's Day,'" said Mark who was in the last day of vacation before returning to China.
He said he was carrying the cash for several families who were traveling together, and that he forgot the bag after posing for family photos on the bridge.
He said the bag’s finders were “very, very kind in heart."
Mark said he tried to call the Landeros family to thank them, but had the wrong phone number.
So he piled his family into a rental car and drove out to their Vallejo home to thank them personally. Only they weren't home.
He said he finally reached them by phone and was able to thank them. He also put a check in the mail with a reward.
It seems Mark's Valentine's Day ended a lot better than the couple's. After spending hours making a police report, they hit rush hour traffic heading back to Vallejo. Valentine's Day dinner ended up being a snack at McDonald's next to the police station.
Still, Barbara said she believes in karma, and was happy not to invoke any of the negative kind. And she figured she and Carlos at least got a few photos and a story out of their day.
"So my heart is rested now because the people got their money and their bag," she said.
Leave a Comment:
All wonderful people.
What a great story. No rape or guns or murder involved.
taken, looks like your call-out to ban bad people is "so far"................ working.
Too bad it doesn't work for your handgun theory...
nice folks. the way you'd like to think most people are.
YAY !! I'm glad there are honest people out there !!
So, the ruin their own Valetine's Day to help out some dumb^ass...I guess no good deed goes unpunished after all.
Creek Dog, you are obsessed with the gun debate. Why inject it into the comments section of this article? Let it go, man.
No, not with the gun debate.
I could care less about the gun debate. I'm just surprised at taken's e-mail. It's a first that had nothing to do with guns. "Sarc" is what it was.
R.M. Fields, if you were familiar with Takenaka's insanity, you'd understand Creek Dog's comment. The only obsession over the "gun debate" is on Takenaka's part. If anything, CD's comment was a compliment to the wild and crazy Taken guy. Settle down, Fields! Quick being so quick to argue!
11 grand in cash carried by a Chinese tourist? Big spenders...
Kudos to the honest couple. I doubt I would do the same.
11K found in a camera bag sitting in a park sounds like dirty money. A wallet? Of course I would report it. But the fact that it did belong to someone and returned does give one a tingle of human compassion. Those people were lucky. Would the same scenaro played out in China, but owned by Americans, have had the same outcome?
Yes, it would. The Chinese in China are very honest when it comes to such things.
I agree Creek Dog...and must admit it was nice to see a post by Takenaka that didn't have "ban" in it!
Love that these people took the time to turn in this money and that "Mark" had the kindness to send them a reward. There are good people in the world, we just don't hear enough about them.
I swear Americans are some of the best people in the world. They often get a bad rap but the majority of Americans are still role models for the rest of the world. God bless this couple
lol americans are no better than any other country. don't kid yourself.
Why the need to hate? I assume you're an American. Why can't you leave a compliment a compliment without putting down your own people - geesh!
Sadly there was $22,000 in the bag when they found it...... ;)
Seriously, nice going. It's good to hear about people doing the right thing when the temptation is so large.
RomanGoblets,some people can't say nice things because they are unhappy people.mindyabusiness just needs a hug and a good friend to share a cup of coffee with.And a compliment or two wouldn't hurt them one bit either.
They didn't even charge gas money. If they found it in LA and turned it in to LAPD those police would of split it and went to dinner
These people have my total respect. Now, if we could get politicians to become this honest, what a great country we would have.
Two words, people: Travelers Checks.
One word, honesty!
Had it been an African American who owned the money they would have said it was drug money and confiscated it.
If it were a BLACK person....it would have been drug money!
too damn bad,
I see you can post without any misspellings with just two little eye holes in your hood. "Punctuation too!" Good job.
gm Creek Dog
too damn bad has a point. He/she wears the hood to hide it.
Nice to see that the media will sometime still cover the good stories. The ones like this about normal, law-abiding, honest people that act honorably and morally even when nobody's looking and expecting no reward. I'm glad the owner did give them a reward however, and glad that somebody noticed and cared enough to give them kudos on their actions!
This is a refreshing story, thanks for posting this article MSNBC! I felt really good reading this article. There should be a website dedicated to only posting good deeds like this. Somewhere to go in order to regain faith in humanity:) I believe there is far more good than bad, just doesn't have as much coverage.
Since I immigrated to the US from England I have always believed Americans are generous, supportive and honest. How else could so many immigrants, many arriving at Ellis Island with just a few dollars (500 in my case in 1963) have achieved a happy life?
Now, unfortunately, big banks, mega corporations, lobbyists, bribe-taking politicians, gun maniacs, police thugs have taken us down the wrong path to where so many are struggling and justifiably angry. When that happens, the wise thing to do is backtrack to when and where we were decent and take a better road.
. . .
WTF man I swear, good things happen to all the WRONG people. And listen to all you phuk faced naive "we are the world" sally bleeding hearts in this thread cheering the idiot couple on, labeling them "good people" and such.. STUPID people is what they are, not "good" or "ethical" blah blah blah. In this economy, you find a bag with 11 grand you KEEP it. There is NO wrong in that and nothing but RIGHT in your pockets, bills, car repairs. Karma my ass. People die everyday waiting for their "good karma" to come back to them. Keep believing in superstitions vs REALITY. REALITY tells me that I'm waking up with the same financial worries, same mortgage, same car note, same insurance(behind), same utility bills(behind), same doctor bills, same medicine expenses, same veternarian bills, same family members' households I have to help support AND keep mine afloat, same car repair problems that I hope will hold off until April, same costs of feeding my dogs, and the same damm wardrobe..only to wake and read that some douche bag sally do goodie brain-phukked couple found 11 grand and.....turned it in? This is almost enough to make me break..Im going to phukking lose it.
By chance, what's your heritage? I can't tell with the poor spelling and sentence structure. It appears to me that your parents failed to instill what most have; common decency.
You just come across as another one of those "it's all about me, where is mine and screw the rest" back woods mindset person. Sadly, you personify what is wrong with this Country.
Ras,
You can't lose it. You never had it. The good news is that there are 10 Landeros for every one of you. If we could have weeded out the people like you we wouldn't be in the mess we are.
Get some help.
The superstition is, we all hoped there were no people like you left in the world...
The reality is, there are still fk'd up people like you in this world...
LOL, yours is coming....
Wow Ras, you're dumber than, well anyone I know. See ya, hate ta be ya.
Ras -- What a pathetic creature you are, man. I honestly feel very sorry for you.
Ras... I recently had the privilege of witnessing my daughter chase after a lady that dropped $200 while shopping.... I believe with all my heart, that what you put out in this world does come back to you... And I pray that the good folks still outnumber you...
This is the type of person the world could do without!
RAS: "Karma my ass" Ras- allow me to point out that we reap what we sow. Based on your post I would say that your beliefs about stealing (beaucoup bad karma!) might be the reason your having financial problems now.
Ras - angry much, or just jealous? If you'd been the one to leave a wad of cash behind, would you celebrate the one who found it and kept it? Or be grateful that decency still exists in the world despite your best efforts? I'd hate to have you in my family, or in my neighborhood for that matter. Seems you just want the whole world to "get off my f*king lawn!"
Ras - so glad you don't represent ALL Americans. You think it's dumb to be honest? You want to see dumb, look in the mirror, dude.
Ras, I gotta say I'm in tears reading your post. You oughta do stand up comedy, The people here can't appreciate your humor.
Lighten up people you can't take this guy seriously.
As I have always believed, no matter how many bad things are reported, there is still more good than bad in this world. Good for this couple, and I am just floored by how much trouble the owner of the camea bag went throught to let them know how much he appreciated their selflessness. Kudos all around!!
What a wonderful story and of course, a wonderful couple! It was too bad that the owner of the bag was unable to connect with them before he had to return to China but you can be sure he will have nothing but good things to say about his trip when he gets home.
With all the rip-offs, scams, ruthless people, thieves, beggars and down rite low-life's it's nice to hear there are still honest people out there, Sorry to hear they didn't get dinner but the Karma will come back ten-fold.
Does Karma exist? I'd like to think the couple just gave up the money because they were honest, not because they hoped to reap some good Karma. That would make an unselfish deed selfish.
I never travel with more than 2 thousand cash on me so if some stupid thing happens and i lose it somewhere you have to believe it's a 100 % chance you ain't getting it back.
This is an example of the way I wish the world was....all of the time.
ConservativeNotRepublican,Me too!
I would like to establish a new rule for rewards for returning money to its rightful owner. Waiter's get at least 15 % for bring you food that you pay for. From now on, eople returning other's money should get at least 20% as the reward.
mdwelch,That is crass way of looking at this.How about the reward that returning something to it's owner makes your heart feel good.No amount of money can buy that.
mdwelch,
Careful there, big Gov't will step in and tax the good samaritan for doing the right thing. No good deed goes unpunished.
Nice people ,nice story, rare these days.
Two honest citizens! An honest cop! And a grateful, gracious tourist -- all against the backdrop of one of America's greatest cities! It's enough to give a guy some hope for the future!
Two honest citizens! Wow! We need more like them. They are qualified to give ethics courses to bankers.
I'd have kept it.
BillFrank,Then you are a thief and dishonest.If you're employed I hope that your boss keeps an eye on you.
I found a bag full of money, it's called a mother-in-law. Unfortunately it's still breathing. No wait, not full of money, full of gas. Talk about Karma. I must have been a real @!$%# in my previous life.
Yay, more honest people in the world. I think there are more then everyone realizes. People do honest acts of kindness everyday that do not make the news.
I'm from Texas, but have been living and working in China for the past 2 years. The first year I moved here, I accidentally left my wallet in a taxi in this small city of 500,000. I filed a report with the police, but my students at the local university where I teach were certain I'd never see it again. I told them, "You never know. I believe that there are honest people everywhere, and there's always a possibility it will be returned." My students looked at me like I was stupid or crazy. Well, long story short, about a month later I got my wallet back with everything in it, cash, ID, credit cards (although I had canceled them already). The lady who found my wallet didn't read or speak English, so she couldn't make heads or tails out of my US info, but when she saw a notice the police had posted she contacted them. So, even though it was a small amount of money, an honest person returned my property. They exist everywhere...we must believe they do. How otherwise can we find them :-)
I once left my wallet in a cab in New Orleans (during our honeymoon). It didn't have any cash, but all the rest-ID, Credit/debit cards etc. We went to the tourist bureau in Jackson Square and reported it. About 1 hour later, I got a call on my cell phone from the cab company telling me the driver had my wallet and wanted to meet us to give it back. We did offer him a cash reward and then used his services for the rest of our vacation.
There are definitely honest people all over.