Lost Cash Returned

So often we see that headline "Lost Cash or Property Returned to Rightful Owner." It recently happened here in Southern Minnesota, and I was the fortunate recipient. Actually my wife was, but close enough.

My wife and I received a card with cash over the holidays. My wife, Julie, put it in her purse. I remember that either January 2 and 3 I saw the blue envelope was still in her purse on our kitchen table. I was kind of keeping an eye on it and wondering if I was going to get some of it or if she planned on keeping it all.

Monday, January 4, she stops to pay a repair bill on our car. No money! It's gone! The phone rings at work "Loren, Loren, did you take that money out of my purse?" Of course not. When it comes to a wife's purse the rule is look but do not touch. Well, the money has apparently fallen out and it's lost. Now if it would have been found on the streets of Ellendale or Geneva, it wouldn't be too hard to find a Loren married to a Julie.There just aren't that many Lorens out there. It couldn't have been stolen at work as my wife's purse gets put in a secure place. Apparently it somehow fell out and so much for that.

January 13 the phone rings. It's Applebee's from the Apache Mall in Rochester. "Did you perhaps lose something?" Aha, we had forgotten that my wife had done business in Rochester on January 3 and she had stopped for lunch at Applebee's. I also learned that she had picked up several checks and placed them in the blue envelope with the cash. Some honest person had Applebee's had found the envelope dropped down somewhere in the woodwork of one of its booths. I guess stranger things have happened. When my wife had paid her bill the envelope had apparently dropped down there without her noticing. It would have been easy to throw out the checks and pocket the cash, but that was not the case at Applebee's.

So, we were the recipients of a kind act performed by some honest workers at the Applebee's in Rochester. An act of honesty should be recognized and for that I thank the staff and management at the Rochester Applebee's.