A family’s holiday season went from despair to joy last Thursday after $32,000 in cash they had lost was returned by a good Samaritan.
The money was lost Wednesday afternoon after Erika Gonzalez, her mother and her son Damien went to a bank to place the money, which came from a restaurant her father owns in San Jose and proceeds from rental houses.
They were told that there were no safe-deposit boxes available for the cash, so they ran some errands and then went to the Applebee’s. Later in the evening, they learned the money was missing. They believed it had been left behind at the bank, but when they called, they were told by bank officials that no money had been found.
Panic followed.
“Our hearts dropped,” said Erika of the moment that she and her mother, Berta Gonzalez, realized the money they intended to put in a bank had been left behind somewhere.
It turned out the cash had been dropped at an Applebee’s restaurant at Cedar and Herndon avenues in Fresno, where they had stopped for dinner after running errands. And a worker at Applebee’s turned the cash over to Fresno police.
Thursday morning, Erika and her family called police. Police said they had received a call from Applebee’s, where a server told his boss he had found the small, navy-blue bag containing a large number of $100 bills.
After interviewing the family, the money was returned back to the Gonzalez family after verifying that it belonged to them.
The waiter was not identified – he told police he did not want any publicity. Carrie Hellyer, an area director for Applebee’s, said the server said “he just wanted to do the right thing.”
Said Detective Sammy Ashworth: “$32,000 (N6.3m) – that amount is virtually unheard of to lose.”
Erika Gonzalez said the family is once again looking forward to a holiday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and that she is very happy she does not have to tell her father that the money he had given her to put in the bank was gone.
