A woman has been walking three miles to work after her car broke down a year ago. One fateful day while she was walking home, she found a plastic bag with a large amount of money. What she did after made her life turn upside down.
For the past year, Dianne Gordon has been walking 2.7 miles to VC Fresh Marketplace down Highland Road where she works.
She used to do it five times a week since her car broke down last year in February. It was tiring and time-consuming for her but she didn’t have a choice because of her financial situation.
Everything changed when something unexpected happened on January 21. She was walking home from work and she decided to stop at the BP gas station to grab a snack. However, before she could set her foot inside, she noticed something out of the ordinary.
“I looked down on the ground and found a plastic bag with a large sum of money in it,” Gordon said.
She was shocked to see how much money was inside the plastic bag but she was not tempted to take them. As a grandmother of two, she knew exactly what to do.
“This doesn’t belong to me, I need to call a police officer,” Gordon thought while holding the plastic bag full of cash. She did what she knew was right and called the police. She waited for the police officers and hoped they would find the owner.
It didn’t take long for the police officers to find the owners of the money since there were cards with their addresses. It turned out that the money was owned by a couple who got married earlier that day.
“There were wedding cards with a name on them, and we were able to get the money back to them,” says Police Chief Dan Keller of the White Lake Township Police Department.
Keller added that it is rare for someone to find a large sum of money and turns them in, as Gordon did. He said he admires her for being honest and conscientious. “She didn’t hesitate; she didn’t question it,” Keller said.
The cash Gordon found was a total of $14,780 and the police returned them to the couple who owned them. Lt. Matthew Ivory said those were gifts from the couple’s wedding. Like Keller, he was also amazed by what Gordon did.
He said that Diane could have put that money to use but she didn’t take them. She has also been missing out on other things in life because of lack of transportation but she did not think of running with the money.
“Grandkids have sporting events that she can’t drive to, jumping into the car and driving over to see them doesn’t happen,” Ivory said. “It could have made her life a whole lot easier but she said it’s okay, it didn’t belong to her.”
Gordon’s integrity made a massive impact on the police officers as well as their families. A police officer’s wife set up a GoFundMe to help Gordon, hoping that a lot of people would be touched by her kindness.
The GoFundMe that Stacy Conell set up for Gordon has raised over $60,000. On February 3, Gordon received a brand-new Jeep as a reward for her good deed. “I am floored,” Gordon shared. “I am having a hard time keeping it in. I am just so excited.”
Gordon said she would like to pay it forward so she is going to give her co-workers a ride when they need one. She also has some advice for everyone: “If you find something that doesn’t belong to you, don’t keep it.”
Watch this video and see how Gordon’s unfortunate incident when her car broke down ended up getting rewarded for her good deed: