A few days back, you might have read the story of the homeless man from Langford back who had returned $2,400 that he found on a Vancouver Island street to the police. Now who does that? He was homeless and he obviously needed the money. But wait, the story doesn’t end there. There’s more to this heartwarming incident.
The Province reported that the man is in his 60s. He had brought the cash to the West Shore RCMP detachment earlier this month. This act was really surprising and after hearing about his good deed, Victoria Buzz founder Mike Kelly created a GoFundMe page hoping to raise money to provide him with a reward. Here’s the link to the GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/x2y2ajk.
It wasn’t really surprising that the supporters could raise more than $5,000 for him. What was surprising that the man has denied to accept this amount. What has gotten us surprised all the more is that he has requested that this sum be donated Our Place community centre and other food-service providers for people in need. Here’s the image or the letter he signed for the same –
(Our Place was already in line to receive half of the funds in excess of $2,400, as per Kelly’s instructions, but will now get the bulk of the money.)
West Shore RCMP Const. Alex Bérubé said, “After hearing this story and seeing how this case touched so many people, I took a personal interest in finding this man, looking for him everywhere while on and off shift. It’s not easy tracking down a person of no fixed address and no phone, but I kept trying because I needed to tell him about how the community had rallied together to help him.”
After the man had returned the money, Bérubé had managed to track him down on June 22. When he turned down the money that was donated to help him, the investigators asked him to re-think his decision, but he was adamant on his request to donate the sum to Our Place community centre and other food-service providers for people in need.
In a media release, Kelly was quoted saying, “Here is a man who is facing many challenges, yet despite that, he chose to do the right thing and see that another person wasn’t left short thousands of dollars and facing the challenges that would bring. Now I’m going to do everything I can to help find him a job that fits his personal situation, and will hopefully move him closer to overcoming his current challenges.”
The man who originally lost the $2,400 has been identified and retrieved his money from police.
What would you like to say about this generous man? Let us know in the comments section below!
The news and the image have been sourced from The Province
