- Glen James found a backpack on Saturday containing $2,400 in cash and a WHOPPING $39,500 in AmEx Travelers Cheques
- The Good Samaritan - who is homeless - handed the pack over to Boston police
- He was honored on Monday and thanked for an 'extraordinary show of character and honesty'
- James has been homeless since losing his job in 2005 and suffers from Meniere's disease which has vertigo-like symptoms
- A fundraising page launched on the GoFundMe.com website has raised more than $4,000 for James
Good Samaritan Glen James said even if he were desperate he wouldn't have kept 'even a penny' of the tens of thousands of dollars in cash and traveler's checks he found on Saturday
The backpack found by Mr James contained $2,400 in cash and $39,500 in American Express Travelers Cheques, plus Chinese passports and other personal papers
Glen James was honored by Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis on Monday and thanked for an 'extraordinary show of character and honesty'
A homeless man who found a backpack containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash and traveler's checks and turned it in to police in Boston said even if he were desperate he wouldn't have kept ‘even a penny.’
Good Samaritan Glen James was honored by Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis on Monday. He was given a special citation and thanked for an ‘extraordinary show of character and honesty.’
James said in a handwritten statement he gave out at a news conference that he was glad to make sure the bag and its contents were returned to the owner.
‘Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a penny,’ he said.
James, who said he once worked as a Boston courthouse employee, found the backpack at the South Bay Mall in the city's Dorchester neighborhood Saturday evening.
He flagged down a police officer and handed it over. Inside the backpack was $2,400 in U.S. currency, almost $40,000 in traveler's checks, Chinese passports and other personal papers.
The man who lost it told workers at a nearby Best Buy store at the mall and they called police.
Officers then brought the backpack's owner to a nearby police station and returned his property after confirming it belonged to him.
Authorities said that the backpack's owner didn't want his identity made public, but that he was a Chinese student who was visiting another student in Boston.
James, who didn't give his age, said he is from the Boston area and has been homeless since 2005.
A police spokeswoman said authorities don't know his age either, but said that James is staying at a city homeless shelter and that many people have expressed interest in helping him since hearing about his good deed.
The Good Samaritan said in his statement that he worked as a file clerk in the Boston municipal court system for 13 years, but lost his job and became homeless after problems with his boss.
James said it would be difficult for him to hold down a job because he suffers from Meniere's disease, which the Mayo Clinic describes as an inner ear disorder that causes episodes of vertigo.
James said that he doesn't want to be a burden to his relatives and that people at the shelter help him. He said God has always looked after him. James gets food stamps and panhandles to make money to do laundry, to pay for transportation and buy other ‘odds and ends,’ he said.
On Monday, he also thanked the strangers who have given him spare change on the street.
‘It's just nice to have some money in one's pocket so that as a homeless man I don't feel absolutely broke all the time,’ he said.
A fundraising page has been on started on the crowd-sourcing fundraising website GoFundMe.com in a bid to raise money to thank James for doing the right thing.
The page was started by Ethan Whittington, who told Boston Magazine that after reading about what James had done he wanted to do something. He hopes to raise $50,000.
‘I thought what he did was very honorable,’ he said.
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