Imagine finding an envelope full of money. What would you do? That was the predicament Kylie McDonald found herself in when she found a bag with thousands of dollars worth of cash.
“It was pretty crazy to find that,” said McDonald, who was walking in a Milton plaza Saturday evening waiting for her ride when she noticed a mesh bag on the ground.
“It felt like it was in a movie. It was so crazy to find that much money in one spot, at one time,” the 17-year-old said.
When she opened it, she noticed it had a large amount of cash and cheques in it. There was nearly $30,000 worth of deposits from what appeared was a local business. Her first thought was — where did it come from?
“I was thinking, oh my goodness, whoever lost this is probably freaking out right now if they’ve noticed,” she said.
“It did have a name and a location and I looked it up,” she said.
It ended up being a nearby dentistry.
The teen tried to go inside, but the location was closed for the day. She immediately went to the local police station, where McDonald says they were surprised but pleased it was turned in.
“They looked at me like, ‘I was not expecting this,'” she said. “The lady said to me, ‘I didn’t expect someone your age would come in with this.'”
It’s a thought that was echoed by Const. Travis White with Halton Regional Police.
“I’m not too sure what other people might have done, but she definitely did the right thing,” White said.
Police said it appeared to be a deposit that was accidentally dropped by an employee of the Milton business. McDonald says it was the Hawthorne Dental Clinic in the plaza, according to the cheques inside. The amount of money was so large that people online are baffled by Kylie’s decision.
“I was reading all of them,” she said. “One said, ‘You’re not the smartest for doing that.’ And I was just thinking, I bet if you were in that situation, you probably would return it too.”
The money was returned to its rightful owner who, in turn, awarded the teen with $500 for her good deed.
The teen’s action, however, was not at all a surprise for her mom Christine, who is proud she made the right choice.
“There’s so much negativity out there, so much bad things happening in the world. And you know what there is really good people out there. Number one, being my daughter,” she said.
A proud moment — and an example of paying it forward they hope others will follow.