You may want to double check those bags and boxes that you donate to Goodwill before you hand them off because one Ohio couple has proved that it’s far too easy to misplace your valuables.
Lynette and Dan Leckrone of Lewisville, Ohio would have lost the downpayment on their new home had it not been for the kindness of strangers at their local Goodwill facility.
According to the Zanesville Times Recorder, the couple accidently gave Goodwill a duffel bagged stuffed with almost $100,000 in cash along with some clothes they donated.
The employees who found the bag in a box full of clothes thought it was fake money until they got a closer look.
“The money was found in a duffle bag that was in a box full of clothes,” the store manager, Janelle Schaffer, said. “Thank goodness she asked for a recipet when the lady dropped the donation off so we had her contact information.”
The bag also contained a last will and testament, as well as other important legal documents.
“I just laughed and said look at all my money I found,” Barb Claypool said when she opened the bag. “I thought it was play money. Then Betsy came over said we needed to take that to the office.”
Lyons said she wasn’t sure if the money was real at first either and thought it might be counterfeit or that there was some type of crime being committed.
Nearly $100,000 was accidentally donated when a woman left a box of clothes at the Maple Avenue Goodwill store. https://t.co/KjDReoeH05
— Zanesville News (@TimesRecorder) June 19, 2017
“When I realized the money wasn’t fake it was kind of scary,” said Lyons. “I thought what if someone comes back looking for it.”
Schaffer attempted to call the number that was left on the donation ticket but never go through. That’s when she called the local police. Eventually, Schaffer finally got through to Lynette Leckrone.
Dan Leckrone explained that he withdrew the money from the bank and put it in the trunk of the car thinking no one would find it there.
“We are moving closer to Wheeling and we have been saving to buy a house,” Dan Leckrone told the Times Recorder. “We were taking the money to deposit it in another bank where we were moving to. We had our trunk full of clothes and things we wanted to get rid of but we don’t have a Goodwill near where we live so we took the things to Zanesville where we have family.”
The Leckrone’s didn’t even realize their $97,004 was missing until they got home and listened to their answering machine.
When the picked up their money at the police station, they made sure to take it straight to the bank.
“We are so thankful to everyone that we got our money back,” said Lynette Leckrone.
Over the years, the employees at the Zanesville Goodwill have found a few dollars here and there, maybe a $100 or $50 bill once in a blue moon, but never anything like this.
“We have some honest, loyal employees,” Schaffer said. “I’m very proud of them.”
It’s nice to know that there are people out there in the world that put themselves in other people’s shoes and look out for each other.
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