Reader Sends In A Timely Piece Of Good News In Everett

Got the following note today that a reader wanted me to pass along about a positive experience after the loss of her cell phone. Here you go:

I had an interesting and positive story I thought you might want to share on your website about someone unexpected doing the right thing when you would least expect it restoring faith in humanity.
Plus I think this person needs some credit for being a good guy.

Here is my story:

On Saturday afternoon, my husband and I were at the Brown Bear Carwash. After we ran our car through the wash, we stopped near the garbage area to clean out our car.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, when I tossed my purse into the back seat, my cell phone spilled out of my purse and dropped into the plastic bag of garbage I had placed in the backseat. The plastic bag went into the Brown Bear Car Wash garbage can.

Later that evening I was looking everywhere for my phone and started to dread that my phone was lost for good. Contacts, hundreds of photos, important text conversations etc. all possibly lost for good. I still hadn’t contemplated that it could have been thrown out. I thought it was just misplaced.
I began calling my phone number later that evening hoping I could locate the phone or if lost someone would pick up. Nothing.

In the morning, my husband decided to call my phone for one last try. Someone picked up. The person on the other line was a man named Jesse and he wanted to return the phone to the rightful owner and asked my husband to confirm what kind of phone it was to make sure it belonged to me.

Here’s the kicker. Brown Bear Car Wash emptied the garbage cans in a giant dumpster at the end of the day. Jesse is a homeless man who happened to be dumpster diving that evening and found my phone in the dumpster. What are the odds?
Jesse informed my husband that he worked at the Everett Gospel Mission in the clothing department. He said if we stopped by in the afternoon he could give us the phone.

Later that afternoon we went to the Mission and asked for Jesse. Jesse was expecting us the front counter person told us. Within 5 minutes, Jesse came up front with my phone in hand and gave it to me. I offered Jesse money as a reward but he refused. He refused?
A homeless man working at the shelter does a wonderful gesture of honesty and kindness and refuses a cash reward which I’m sure he could use. I thanked him profusely and off Jesse went to return to work in the clothing department.

Since he didn’t take my reward money I made the donation to the shelter at the front desk.

When my husband and I walked out to our car we saw Jesse in the back of the building talking to a few people. I called out his name and asked him to come over. He came over, smile on face, and I held out my hand to shake his and said “You’re awesome!, thank you so much?”

He replied, “No problem, I have a conscious, just wanted to do the right thing.”

When my husband and I were making our donation inside and talking to the front counter person commenting on how great Jesse’s honestly was, the counter person replied “we expect that from Jesse”. Not a lot of people here who are homeless would have done that.

So, within 24 hours I had my phone back and thought to myself, when you start to become cynical about life and people at times, someone will do something unexpected when you least expect it and restore your faith in humanity.

Sure, it’s just a phone, but still. It was something important that I needed and luckily I got it back.

Just wanted to share my story. Just thought Jesse deserved a little credit for what he did.

Regards,

Paige Paul