Goodwill Employee Finds $5,000, Gets to Keep It

(Greenville, SC) Talk about being fortuitous.

A Goodwill employee finds $5,000 in the pants pocket of a pair of donated pajama pants and gets to keep it!

According to the Associated Press, a recently hired Goodwill worker, Kelli Owens, mother of three, and single, was being trained on how to sort through donated clothes in her Greenville, South Carolina Goodwill store when, bam! she laid her hands on a thick envelope with a note and 5,000 smackeroos inside. Would you do what she do with the money after finding it, and take it straight to the supervisor along with the enclosed note?

Because that's what she did earlier this month when she found it, making no hesitation about it and taking it straight away to her immediate boss. In turn, the store supervisor contacted her boss, and the search for the rightful owner was on. The note enclosed in the envelope was addressed to the intended recipient. The note also said that he or she hoped the money would be spent wisely.

After questioning at least 30 people who were no doubt eager to take a crack at trying to claim the money, none of them were able to give the right description, that is, the name on the note, and/or where the donation had been dropped off.

So what to do? Goodwill Industries spokeswoman Crystal Hardesty said this past Friday, May 25th, that since the owner could not be found, "Kelli Owens would be able to keep the money," and that "it's being invested into a scholarship fund," according to the Associated Press.

One of the higher-ups, Goodwill Industries executive director Bill Wylie commented on the situation in Greenville, SC, saying he was proud of Owens for doing the right thing and turning the money in.

When questioned as to why she didn't just pocket the money, according to the Associated Press, Ms. Owens said, "I just want everybody to be proud of me - knowing that there is someone out there that is honest. I couldn't keep it because it belonged to somebody else, you know. I couldn't live with myself had I kept it knowing that it belonged to somebody else."