A homeless man is receiving praise from a local community after he turned in a backpack with $40,000 in cash and travelers checks.
According to ABC News, Glen James, a homeless man in Massachusetts, found the backpack at the South Bay Mall in Dorchester Saturday. The bag had $2,400 in cash and $39,500 in traveler’s checks. A passport was also in the bag.
After turning the bag into the police, which was then returned to a student visiting from China, the officer gave James a citation for his “extraordinary show of character and honesty.” A fund was created on GoFundMe.com by Ethan Whittington , a touched Samaritan. $72, 287 have been raised since news broke Saturday and over $97,000 have been earned since Thursday, The Associated Press reports.
“When I saw an update on the article that mentioned the [student] received his bag back and didn’t mention anything about what James got besides a plaque, I thought, ‘Is a plaque really gonna benefit a guy like that?’” Whittington explained.
“I heard about GoFundMe, Tweeted it out to my five followers on Twitter. It says a lot about Boston, the way everyone responded to that thing…Let’s all chip in and help this man change his life. Every little donation helps,” Whittington wrote on the website hoping to help James. “Let’s be reassured that there is still hope and humanity in our great nation.”