Michigan Woman Returns Nearly $15K She Found While Walking, Receives Jeep as Thanks 

A Michigan woman returned nearly $15,000 worth of cash she found outside a gas station, and members of her community helped organize a generous gift to reward her for her honesty.

Dianne Gordon of White Lake Township in Michigan was walking home from work one snowy night in late January when she made a stop at the BP station near Pontiac Lake Road for a brief respite from the winter weather. Just outside the door, she found a bag containing $14,780, a GoFundMe page explains.

“I looked down on the ground and found a plastic bag with a large sum of money in it,” she told Fox 2. “When you turned it over there was even more money.”

According to the fundraiser page, she called the police in hopes of returning it to its rightful owners, who turned out to be a couple who had just been married.

“She never opened [the bag] (even though she could clearly see a large amount of cash inside),” the page says.

However, White Lake Police Lt. Matthew Ivory told Fox2, “It never really crossed her mind to do anything other than turn it over.”

“When we heard that Dianne hasn’t had a vehicle in over a year and walks 5 days a week, 2.7 miles each way to work and back, we knew we had to help,” the White Lake Township Police Department wrote in a Facebook post. 

To express their appreciation for her inspiring integrity, White Lake Township Police Department and White Lake Police Foundation stepped up to create a GoFundMe fundraiser for Gordon, with a view toward helping her purchase a vehicle, WHMI reported.

The organizers hope she will soon be able to “stop walking to work but more importantly, spend more time with her grandchildren and attend more of their [athletic] events,” per WHMI.

“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 to Fox 2 regarding Gordon’s transportation situation.

The fundraiser’s intake has dwarfed its $25,000 starting goal, having raised over $80,000 as of 10:00 p.m. Wednesday.

The organizers said they would be “working with Szott Automotive,” a local dealership, to help Dianne purchase a vehicle, according to the GoFundMePage.

WHMI confirmed that Gordon has filled out the paperwork for “a green Jeep – her preferred color of choice,” and according to the fundraising page “has expressed her extreme gratitude.”

Dianne Gordon’s happy ending serves as a reminder that honesty is truly the best policy.