Boston homeless man finds $40,000, hands it over to police

NBC News -- A homeless man in Boston who found a backpack containing $2,400 in cash and $39,500 in travelers checks turned over the lost treasure to the police.

carrieheals

Sep 17, 2013

NBC Bay Area — A homeless Boston man who police said turned in a backpack containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash and traveler’s checks said even if he were desperate he wouldn’t have kept “even a penny.”

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis honored Glen James on Monday, giving him a special citation and thanking him for an “extraordinary show of character and honesty.”

James said in a handwritten statement he gave out at a news conference that he was glad to make sure the bag and its contents were returned to the owner.

“Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a penny,” he said.

James, who said he once worked as a Boston courthouse employee, found the backpack at the South Bay Mall in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood Saturday evening. He flagged down a police officer and handed it over. Inside the backpack was $2,400 in U.S. currency, almost $40,000 in traveler’s checks, Chinese passports and other personal papers.

The man who lost it told workers at a nearby Best Buy store at the mall and they called police. Officers then brought the backpack’s owner to a nearby police station and returned his property after confirming it belonged to him.

Authorities said that the backpack’s owner didn’t want his identity made public, but that he was a Chinese student who was visiting another student in Boston.

James, who didn’t give his age, said he is from the Boston area and has been homeless since 2005. A police spokeswoman said authorities don’t know his age either, but said that James is staying at a city homeless shelter and that many people have expressed interest in helping him since hearing about his good deed.

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