Boy finds big bucks in coat

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This article was published 30/10/2014 (3067 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — A teenage boy made quite the find at a church rummage sale Saturday.

Norman Brown, who helps organize Knox United Church’s annual sale, said the unsuspecting young man got quite a surprise when he tried on a black suit jacket at the sale.

“He put his hand in the pocket and discovered a wallet,”Brown said of 14-year-old Tom Campbell, who was shopping with his grandmother Vivian Mitchell.

Further examination revealed 20 crisp $50 bills in the wallet. But there was more.

“He put his hand in the other pocket and proceeded to find another wallet stuffed with $50 bills,” Brown said.

In total, Campbell found $2,000.

“I was very surprised, and I was shocked to find both wallets in the pockets,” Campbell said.

Campbell immediately made the organizers of the sale aware of the cash-filled wallets.

“I realized I should hand it in,” he said.

Some investigative work by Brown and Mitchell gave the story a happy ending. A blank cheque in one wallet provided a name and phone number for the owner, but a quick call revealed the phone was disconnected.

Acting on a hunch the jacket might have been donated by a family who recently had a loved one pass away, Mitchell checked the obituaries, which turned up the owner’s name.

Mitchell tracked down the family of the man, eventually locating his brother and returning the $2,000.

Campbell was rewarded with $200 from the family for his honesty.

“It’s a wonderful story of truth and honesty with a young man and his grandmother,” Brown said. “They could have walked out of the door with $2,000 in their pocket.”

— Brandon Sun