Curiosity
Glen James: Fund Set Up for Honest Homeless Man Who Returned $42k (PHOTO)
Man returns $42k: A homeless but honest man in Boston turned over a huge sum, saying he wouldn’t “take a penny.”
Glen James has had a rough go of it for the past few years in Boston, living as a homeless man on the streets. But he didn’t think twice when he found a bag lost by a visiting tourist that contained more than $42,000 in cash and travelers checks.
After discovering the bag in Dorchester, James sought out a local policeman so that the cash-filled bag could be returned to its rightful owner, a man visiting the U.S. from China. James says God has always taken care of him and the thought never crossed his mind to keep the contents of the bag for himself.
“I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank everyone — every pedestrian stranger — who has given me spare change. Thank you!” read the statement James handed out at police headquarters because “I don’t talk too much because I stutter.”
“It’s just nice to have some money in one’s pocket so that as a homeless man I don’t feel absolutely broke all the time,” he said.
As a result of his extreme honesty, James has been honored with a special citation by the Boston Police Commissioner. As word of his right actions have spread, more and more people who see him on the street are handing him cash outright.
Although James was employed through 2005 at a job at Boston’s main courthouse, he has been jobless and homeless ever since. A concerned citizen living in Virginia has established a website online encouraging people to donate so that a goal reward of $50,000 can be turned over to James to start a new life.
“I thought what he did was very honorable,” Ethan Whittington, of Richmond, Va., told Boston Magazine.
‘It’s a good amount of money to get your feet off the ground,’ Mr Whittington told the Boston Globe. ‘We’ve all been in that situation when we’ve lost something.’
He spoke to Mr James for the first time yesterday and is planning to travel to Boston to meet him and discuss the best way for him to use the money.
On an update on the donation site, Mr Whittington said: ‘Donations just keep pouring in. I have had people willing to donate computers, clothes, food, etc. I am also speaking with a few folks about the possibility of a house or apartment.’
The initial fundraising goal has been raised from $50,000 to $250,000 in the hope that it can be used to buy Mr James a house and get him back on his feet.
“I thought what he did was very honorable,” Ethan Whittington, of Richmond, Va., told Boston Magazine.
Boston police honoured Glen James with a special citation Monday after he found and turned in a backpack filled with more than US$40,000 in cash and traveller’s cheques
On The Web:
Homeless man honored for turning in bag holding $42K
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/16/boston-homeless-man-returns-backpack-cash/2822943/