Erika and Bertha Gonzalez walked into a Fresno, California Applebee’s to enjoy a nice meal and mistakenly left behind a large sum of money. Doubting they would find the lost money, the Gonzalez family went to the police department in hopes of someone turning it in.
Why were the Gonzalez’s carrying so much money? According to WTOC, It came from the family business, which includes owning some rental properties as well as restaurant. The Gonzalez’s had plans to put it in a deposit box, but were faced with carrying it around when they discovered the bank didn’t have any boxes left. It wasn’t until Wednesday night that the family realized the money was missing.
Erika Gonzalez believed that when Bertha took out her wallet to pay the bill, she also took out the bag with the money in and forgot to put it back in her purse. Luckily, the server who was waiting on them at Applebee’s happened to be incredibly honest. As soon as he found it, he turned it in and the fortune made it way to the police department.
After getting the family to describe the bag and contents, it was determined that Gonzalez were indeed the rightful owners of the money. Detective Sammy Ashworth describes, “They described the bag that it was in and the denominations and they determined, yeah, it was their money.” The amount was verified by a money counting machine at the department.
While the amount of money was more than many of the restaurant employees’ full salary, this server views turning it in as the right thing to do. He does not desire any reward from the family or Applebee’s. Sticking to his integrity, he even has managed to keep his name out of the story. What makes the story even more incredible is he that could have easily taken it without being noticed because of the lack of security cameras in the area of the restaurant where the ladies were sitting.
The Gonzalez family hopes the server will at take a small thank you gift at least.
“I’m so glad they found it, I really appreciate it,” Erika Gonzalez said.
Image by Pictures of Money via Flickr, available Creative Commons License.
