 |
|
|
|
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
A Friend in 'Deed': Henrietta Gamino, an Agilent Technology technician, recently returned a moneybag containing $8,000 that she found in a Marshall's shopping cart at the Pruneyard.
One good turn deserves another
Woman turns in $8,000 cash left in shopping cart
By Erin Mayes
When Henrietta Gamino zipped open the leather pouch she'd found sitting in an abandoned cart in the Pruneyard Shopping Center, she was horrified to find dozens of $20 bills staring her in the face. Although she'd done nothing wrong, she immediately felt guilty and thought perhaps someone was watching her.
It had been a fairly normal evening thus far. After visiting her daughter's Campbell home, Gamino decided to do some Christmas shopping at the nearby Marshall's, next door to Wells Fargo Bank.
She parked her car at about 9 p.m. on Dec. 10 and chose one of two carts that had been left in the parking lot, placing her purse in the front child seat portion of the cart.
Gamino, 55, estimated that she shopped for two hours and then left the store. She loaded the gifts into her car and picked up her purse, only then noticing the money pouch that had been there the whole time.
Realizing she'd obviously found someone's misplaced deposit, Gamino debated with herself about what to do. She knew the Campbell Police Department was on her way home, but she lives in San Jose and thought perhaps she ought to notify the latter police department. Finally, she decided to take the pouch home and give it to her neighbor, an employee with the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department.
But her neighbor wasn't home. Desperate to rid herself of the money, Gamino called the San Jose Police Department and spoke with someone who asked her what she expected the police to do about it. Uncomfortable with the operator's rudeness, Gamino decided to call the phone number she'd found in the pouch, and left a message after no one answered.
Stuck with the pouch, Gamino had to wait until someone either called or showed up to take it off her hands. Before long, a Campbell police officer was standing on her doorstep, ready to relieve her of her burden.
"He said, 'I just can't believe there's this much money in here,'" Gamino said. "He says, 'I'm not even going to count it--there's just too much money.'"
Coincidentally, while the officer was there, the phone rang. The person on the other end of the line happened to be the woman who'd left the pouch in the cart.
"She was so thankful," Gamino said. "She said there was about $8,000 in there. I couldn't believe it. I thought, 'Gosh, somebody could have taken the money and burned through everything.'"
The woman who left the pouch in the cart preferred not to be identified because she is a business owner and the victim of a recent break-in. She said that she, too, had gone shopping at Marshall's and mistakenly left the money pouch in her shopping cart. She said that she usually doesn't carry cash and certainly not as much as $8,000, but she had an unusually large deposit to make because business was booming for the holiday season.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Honesty First: Campbell resident Henrietta Gamino returned a moneybag containing $8,000 that she discovered in a shopping cart at Marshall's in the Pruneyard during the holiday rush.
After she realized the money was missing, she raced back to the shopping center to search for it, but was unable to find it.
Perhaps by luck, Gamino happened upon the pouch. The woman who lost the pouch said she believes it may have something to do with the Golden Rule.
"I try very hard to give back to the community," the woman said. "I think that's why the money was found by someone who was so honest. I think that what she did was very honorable."
The woman wrote Gamino a letter, thanking her from the bottom of her heart.
"Hearing your voice on my business phone, telling me that you had found the bag really made me believe in Santa," the woman wrote. "I had, however, already prayed to God for its return, so perhaps it was a dual prayer that was answered."
The woman included a $200 check with the letter, calling it a "small token" and expressing her hope that it would make Gamino's Christmas a little brighter.
Gamino said that she also believes that her good deed may have more to do with karma than good luck. A few years ago, she, too, left her purse in a shopping cart, and like the woman who'd lost the money pouch, raced frantically back to the store to search for it.
"A lady had turned it in," Gamino said. "I tried to give her money and she wouldn't take it. She said it's happened to her before."
Gamino has lived in her home on the outskirts of Campbell for 34 years and has been married for 35 years. A Cupertino native, Gamino works in the research and development department of Agilent Technologies in Palo Alto.
Campbell Police Department Captain Russ Patterson said that Gamino definitely did the right thing by alerting police about the money pouch.
|
|
|
|
Campbell, California
