A feel good story

Sometimes we need to be reminded of the good folks in this world...ordinary people who do something honest that merits attention:

From the TucsonCitizen:

Teen finds wallet with money, returns it; he wants no reward
By DAVID L. TEIBEL and RYN GARGULINSKI
Tucson Citizen

Luis Jaramillo's mother is ill, sick enough to be missing work from one of her two jobs.

He's 17, an age notorious for pranks and parties.

The Tucson teen found a wallet with $229 inside and no one would have known the difference if he kept the cash and dumped the wallet in the trashBut rather than take the money, Jaramillo, who spied the wallet Sunday in the parking lot at the North Cortaro Road Wal-Mart near Interstate 10 where he works, turned it into his manager.

"I didn't want to run and take it," Jaramillo said. "That's not the way I was raised."

Sure, he added, he stared at the wallet a long time, thinking how the money could help the family, but stealing it wasn't an option.

And there was more than just money inside.

"It had my birth certificate, baby pictures, my Social Security (card), shot records ... everything, everything was in there," said the wallet's owner Elizabeth Robinson, a mother of two youngsters.

"It was not the money I was worried about," she said. "To have everything back, I was just 'Wow.' "

What wowed her most, she said, was when she had a chance to thank Jaramillo in person after Marana police called to say Wal-Mart management turned the lost wallet over to them.

"He was just entirely too young to have done something like this," she said of Jaramillo. "It was just amazing."

Robinson said it renewed her faith in today's teens.

"I thought our youth was going down," she said. "We do have good youth here."
Marana police Sgt. Tim Brunenkant agreed.

"It's obviously very noble. He obviously was thinking, 'This belongs to someone else,' " he said.

When Robinson was asked if she will continue to carry around so many personal documents, she laughed and quickly responded, "I got a new place for them now."
Jaramillo responded quickly, too, when asked if he's been known to assist others.

"I've helped out senior citizens that have walking problems get into their cars when I'm working," he said.

Luis Jaramillo works collecting shopping carts from the store's parking lot. During the earlier part of the day he attends special classes for slow learners at Mountain View High School, said his mother, Miriam Jaramillo, 52.

While Luis' job has given him several chances to help others, Wal-Mart policy prohibits employees from accepting rewards for found property, Miriam Jaramillo said, adding that is her policy, too.

"He was doing that from the bottom of his heart. That's the way I raised him. I don't want him to take money from the lady. I want him to know he's doing the right thing," she said.

Her son said the same thing.

"I don't think I should get a reward," he said. "I felt good. I did a good thing. I came home and told my brother and my mom and they told me how proud they were of me. That made me feel very good."

The feelings were mutual.

"I'm very sick right now, but the things he's doing make me feel good," his mother said.

As for others his age who may stumble across found money, Luis dispenses the following advice: "Don't go out like a criminal. Don't be like them. That's pretty bad. You get only one chance at life."
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This kid has a good attitude on life and a good heart. He deserves kudos for doing the right thing...and doing it humbly.

Unfortunately, stories like this are the exception and not the rule...why?

Either way...Luis Jaramillo...we the american people salute you. Thank you for doing the right thing.