Two homeless women in a San Jose encampment returned a considerable amount of money to a man whose vehicle got destroyed by a fire.
The two women were among four homeless people who sprang into action to help their neighbor who thought he had lost everything after a fire razed his van. The woman found a huge amount of cash belonging to the fire victim and did not hesitate to do the correct thing.
At an encampment near the San Jose International Airport, a vehicle belonging to a man named George got destroyed in a fire on Thanksgiving eve. Four of his caring neighbors started sifting through the debris left after his van burned to find if they could salvage any of his belongings.
Gretchen Pace, one of the homeless neighbors, said that if her stuff got burned, she hoped someone would find it and help her out.
During the Wednesday fire, two men saved the van owner’s two dogs, and the women found a load of cash, which George had hidden in the vehicle.
Pace told a reporter that George had confided in her the night of the fire, saying he had just lost all the money he was saving to visit his family. He told her that he had not seen his family for a decade. Pace said she sympathized with him and thought he needed to see his family.
According to Pace, a blanket that George wrapped the money in prevented the fire from scorching it all, ultimately saving it.
The other helper, a homeless woman named Kimberly Williams, found another bundle of cash stuffed in a tin can in the wreckage. Williams said that although part of the tin can had been burned, the middle part was still visible. She said the money inside the can was still intact, and she could see the serial numbers. She did not count the money in the can, so she did not know precisely how much she had found.
Williams said she got very excited when she found the money.
The two women could not wait to tell George the good news and went directly to the hospital where George was hospitalized for an illness unrelated to the fire, and handed the money back to him.
Pace said that when she handed George his money, he was emotionally overcome and immediately started crying. The shocked man asked her why she returned the money and offered her a share of the cash as a reward.
Pace told him that she had returned the cash because it was his money and did not belong to her. She rejected his offer of a reward and asked him for just enough for a pack of cigarettes.
Still shocked by her good-heartedness and thankful to her for returning his hard-earned cash, he asked if he could take her out to dinner. Pace refused the offer for dinner, instead opting for a coffee and donut date.
When asked if they considered themselves heroes, both women said they were not, and anybody with empathy and compassion would have done the same thing.
