The Dalles woman turns in found $500

She didn’t even know how much was there until a reporter told her: $500.

Her moment of temptation passed quickly because “I couldn’t think of a darn thing that would be worth the guilt from it.”

Plus, she added, “I always think of things from the other person’s point of view and that kind of keeps you on the straight and narrow.

“We get rent money and I’ve been where I was counting out rent money and it seemed like two people were going to be unhappy” if it wasn’t turned in, she said.

The note attached to the money had a name, and police were quickly able to return the cash to its owner. The man could not be reached for comment.

When she turned it in, officers “were just kind of surprised. They laughed and said maybe they should split it. I said, ‘Well, the thought had crossed my mind, but here it is.’”

The police were just joking, of course. The Dalles Police Officer Troy Becnel said when cash gets turned in to the police department, policy requires “double custody” of the money, meaning two officers each count the money and verify the amount.

Not too long ago, a wallet was found with some $800 in it, and it turned out it belonged to a firefighter in town to fight the Rowena Fire, Becnel said. When he was told his wallet was found, “he said, ‘Phew! Are you kidding me? Is there any money in it?’”

Becnel said when a citizen turns in money “it’s kind of nice, I guess, that there’s some honest people still in society. With the stuff we deal with every day it’s kind of hard to get a hold of someone who’s actually going to turn it in, especially with the economy the way it is — $500 is a lot of money.”

Pettyjohn said the officers also told her “they needed more people like me in town. That was cute.”

Becnel estimated that out of about every 10 wallets turned in to police, about three of them will have money in them. That may not sound great, but it’s a far sight better than where he used to work.

“I worked in New Orleans and you’re not getting a wallet turned in there,” he said.

Here, he said, “We get debit cards turned in to us all the time, because people actually leave them in the ATM machine,” especially the one right by the police department.

And while people who have wallets returned — often sans cash – aren’t always super thrilled at the news because they’ve already cancelled all their cards and replaced their ID, they still think it’s “like a miracle,” Becnel said.

Becnel recounted the reaction of one woman who got her wallet returned. “She opened it up, saw the money that was still in there. She couldn’t believe that there were still good people in society, but there are.”

Indeed, at the Pettyjohn household, it’s a given. When Bonnie got home and told her husband about her good deed, “He said, ‘Good, that’s the way we do things.’ That’s all he said.”