upworthy

good samaritan

Heroes

People rally around an honest teen who went out of his way to return a woman's missing purse

He didn't ask for a reward, but he's getting a big one.

via GoFundMe

Ring footage shows Adrian Rodriguez returning a lost purse.

At Upworthy, we are always looking to share the best of humanity and there are few things that reveal someone’s good character quite like when they do good when no one is watching. A recent story from Chula Vista, California, celebrates a teenager who went out of his way to return a woman’s lost purse.

According to NBC News San Diego, Eliana Martin was shopping at Ralph’s supermarket when she accidentally left her purse in a shopping cart in the parking lot. After she left the store, she realized she had lost her purse and began frantically canceling her credit cards. Shortly after Martin left the parking lot, a recent high school graduate, Adrian Rodriquez, 17, found her purse in the cart. Rodriguez searched the purse to look for an identification card to find where she lived so he could return it to her. He then drove over to the address on the identification card, where Melina Marquez, Martin's former roommate, currently lives.

Marquez wasn’t home so Rodriguez left the purse with a relative. Marquez later saw video of the drop-off on the family’s Ring doorbell camera.

“I looked into the Ring camera, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. He’s such a young kid.’ I was like, ‘We need to find him and just give him a little piece of gratitude.’” Marquez told NBC San Diego.

Even though Rodriguez didn’t expect anything for doing the right thing, Marquez believes that he should be rewarded for his actions. So she organized a GoFundMe campaign that has raised nearly $5,000 for the 17-year-old.

“We think he deserved a great compensation and since a lot of people wanted to help for his good actions here we are,” she wrote on the campaign’s website. For Marquez, Rodriguez’s good deed was about more than just returning a purse.

“He was raise [sic] by amazing parents and this needs to be told,” she added. “Gives me hope for our next generation and also never judge a book by its cover.”

While the story of Rodriguez returning the purse is heartwarming, it isn’t all that rare. A groundbreaking 2019 study conducted in Europe found that when people find a lost wallet, they are more likely to return it if it contains money. Further, the more money in the wallet, the more likely it’ll be returned.

Researchers believe that people are more likely to turn in wallets containing money because they believe that it’s wrong to steal. "The more money wallet contains, the more people say that it would feel like stealing if they do not return the wallet,” Alain Cohn, the study’s lead author from the University of Michigan, told NPR.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

From Your Site Articles
heroes
Heroes

Grandma praises teen who found her missing wallet and went out of his way to get it back to her

'God watched over me. He brought this angel into my life.'

via Gosheshe/Flickr

Delivontae Johnson found Dee Harkrider's wallet.

When 19-year-old Delivontae Johnson pulled into a Walmart parking lot to replace a popped tire on Thursday, January 12, he had no idea he was going to change someone’s life. “I once heard in the church from a pastor the devil will strike before God begins to bless,” Johnson told Fox 16.

After parking in the pharmacy lot, the East Arkansas Community College student noticed someone left their wallet in a shopping cart. “I wasn’t supposed to be parking in that spot but thank God I did,” Johnson recalled. He opened the wallet and found it belonged to Dee Harkrider, 61, who lives in Wynne, Arkansas.

He was able to get in touch with Harkrider and she told him that she was in Palestine about 20 miles away from Wynne. “I live in Wynne, but I was in Palestine. So, that young man detoured and came to Palestine and brought me my wallet,” said Harkrider.

“I was at Walmart earlier in the day and left my wallet in the shopping cart out on the parking lot,” Harkinder later wrote on Facebook. “I got all the way back to Palestine when my friend Elaine called me asking me if I knew Delivontae Johnson and I told her no. He had contacted her to let her know he found my wallet but didn’t know how to get in touch with me and to let her know.”

The two met up in a supermarket parking lot and they posed for a photo that Harkrider later posted on Facebook. She was able to give him $20 as a reward for his good deed and for driving out to find her.

“I wanted people to know what this young man had done for me. I had to share it,” Harkrider said. “Thank you does not come even close to the gratitude I feel for this young man whom I met only today!” she wrote in her post.

Harkrider and Johnson now follow each other on Facebook and realized that they have a mutual friend in common. Harkrider believes that it was more than luck that brought the two together. “A friend told me I was lucky. I told her no, God was watching out for me,” Harkrider wrote on Facebook. “Delivontae Johnson, I pray that God bless you beyond any measure! Now I have a new friend!”

The story of Harkrider’s lost wallet is a great reminder that there are good people in this world. According to science, the vast majority of people across the world would return a lost wallet. A 2019 study found that when people found a wallet with the equivalent of $94 in cash inside, 72% of them returned it to their owners.

However, wallets with only $13 in them were returned only 61% of the time. It seems that the more money people find, the more likely they'll go out of their way to help someone. So, although it’s heartwarming to hear stories about people doing the right thing, we should remember that most people in this world will do the right thing when given the opportunity.

From Your Site Articles
good samaritan
More

This motorist's kind gesture is a reminder that we should all do good.

You're headed for work when you see someone stuck on the side of the road. What do you do?

Most of us would probably have to admit that we usually keep driving when we see situations like these. We tell ourselves that the stranded person is probably fine or that someone else will stop.

That’s why this video of a man stepping out of his truck to help an elderly man has already racked up over 6 million views on Facebook and is making headlines around the country.

The clip shows a driver abandoning his truck on a busy street to gently guide a man with a walker to safety from oncoming traffic.



Truck driver helps elderly man cross the street

Motorist captures the heartwarming moment a kind driver hopped out of his truck to help an elderly man across a busy road in Griffin, Georgia. The good samaritan stopped traffic to make sure he got to the other side of the street safely.

Posted by ABC News on Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Since being posted on March 11, the video’s been gathering attention from the masses.

And while some people seem to have taken the moment to preach about traffic safety (there’s always someone!), most reacted by commenting on the motorist’s humanity and good-heartedness — two things we all need more of in our daily lives.

E'Ondria Weems, the woman who shot the video, told local news station 11 Alive in Atlanta that she was concerned about the elderly man when she saw him trying to make it across the street. But before she could do anything, she said, the truck driver already had things in hand, making the man’s safety his top priority.

"It was so nice of him to do that. Makes you think there are still nice people in this world," Weems told the station.

What’s extraordinary about the video is just how ordinary it is.

Justin Jackson, the man who’s since been identified as the good Samaritan, said he wasn’t doing anything special. "The old man was walking across the streets and people were flying by and I was like 'l got to stop,'” he told 11 Alive.

We all know we should help other people, but we’re often too busy or preoccupied to notice all the small good deeds we could be doing to make each other’s lives easier.

Often, we become so caught up in global issues that we forget about the change we can effect in our own communities.

That’s why the acts of people like Justin Jackson and Evoni Williams — the Waffle House waitress who recently got viral attention after helping a man cut his food — are so important. They’re reminders that we could all be doing better and helping our fellow people.

And what we do doesn't have to be huge. As Jackson proves, it could be as simple as taking 30 seconds out of your day to steer someone to safety.

Take a look around as you go into the world today, and if there’s a chance for you to be kind to someone else, take it. Sure, a camera may snap the incident and turn you into a viral celeb for a moment, but the support you’ll provide and the reminder that the world can be a kind place is worth way more than any other attention or reward you might receive.

Friendship

A stranger found a lost library book and returned it with this heartwarming note.

Image created from Pixabay.

Nobody enjoys having an overdue library book.

Employees at Idaho's Meridian Library were going through the mail after the Thanksgiving holiday 2017 when they got a sweet surprise.

Inside one of the packages was a book — Thomas Rockwell's "How to Eat Fried Worms" — that had been missing from the stacks.

Getting books in the mail is no major shock at Meridian. The library finds that visitors passing through or patrons going on vacation will often mail back items to avoid fines.

Along with this particular book, however, there was a curious handwritten note.

"I found this book on an airplane last month," the message began.

"I called your library to notify them. I failed to return on time (and) apologize. Please add this $5.00 to the person's account that borrowed the book as a credit. Thank you."

Sure enough, along with the note was a $5 bill.

Found in the mail with a $5 bill this morning. There are some amazing people in our community. #mymld
Posted by Meridian Library District on Monday, November 27, 2017


The good Samaritan had been hoping to get the book back to the library before the due date but couldn't and decided to assume responsibility for the late fee.


Obviously, they were under no obligation to pay the fine, and their small, understated generosity floored the library staff.


Knowing you have a book overdue at the library and not being able to find it is one of those little stresses that can add up big time.


It's like having a sink full of dirty dishes or being behind on laundry. It's not a source of massive worry, but many unresolved things added together can make you feel anxious and overwhelmed — too much of which is certainly bad for your health.

So while a stranger returning a book and paying $5 in fines may seem inconsequential, the act is inspiring thousands of people who have read about the story online.

"Everyone is loving this heartwarming story," says Macey Snelson, who heads communications and marketing for the library. "I think that this is resonating with people so much because we live in a world where the news cycles are filled with contention and negative stories, and it's refreshing to see a story that shows that people are inherently good."

This story proves that even a teeny, tiny act of kindness, in a small part of the country, can have a big impact.

From Your Site Articles
community
Trending Stories