When a teen found a veteran’s lost wallet which contained 2 300 he immediately returned it a short time later he received a text from his mother tommy o’connor a senior at irvington high school was leaving a 7-11 in vermont california when he found himself in the middle of a what would you do moment according to the mercury news after buying a soda at the convenience Store the team noticed a wallet on the ground as he was headed back to class at Irvington
when he picked it up and looked inside he saw hundred dollar bills lots of them although tommy didn’t count the money at the time it was later determined that the wallet contained 2 300 in cash Staring at the wad of cash tommy was faced with a choice between attempting to return the wallets to its rightful owner or going on a shopping spree luckily for one veteran tommy didn’t hesitate to make the right decision that fateful tuesday doing the right thing was the only option but there was a problem tommy couldn’t find the name of the owner inside the wallet
but he still wouldn’t consider pocketing the money instead tommy took the wallet and cash To his pair educator anna gomez at school he was so concerned about finding the wallet’s owner gomez recall no other option even occurred to him he immediately knew what he had to do i didn’t count it when i saw it tommy said i just thought it was probably someone’s rent or something he added as gomez went through the wallet the pier discovered it contained 2300 bills but tommy never considered doing anything but the right thing Eventually a veteran’s identification card was located in the wallet revealing its owner’s name and that he was a military
veteran tommy o’connor and anna gomez consulted with irvington principal sarah smoot who assisted in making contact with a vet to return their wallet after the wallet and the money was returned the unnamed but grateful owner admitted that the cash was indeed for his rent and happily rewarded tommy with 50 but there’s so much more to tommy’s story and his parents have every reason to be proud tommy had a huge reason to be tempted by the cash the day before finding the wallet the teen whose family lives paycheck to paycheck didn’t even
have money of his own for lunch with us living month to month it’s a big chunk of money and i’m so proud of him that he did that ron o’connor tommy’s father told kpix 5. hearing what her son had Done tommy’s mother sent him a heartfelt text but it was his response that speaks volumes about the teen’s character i’m very proud of you son sherry o’connor texted to tommy redd miss caller called me wow you’re one in a million love you to the moon and back not willing to take the credit tommy replied you should be thanking yourself you raised me and even as the local news heaped preys on the california teen he remained humble i’m just doing Everything i wish
anyone else to do tommy said according to cbs local but tommy’s parents know that he could have easily decided to keep the cash and are rightfully proud that even during their own struggles their son wasn’t tempted and his conscience didn’t waver i’m just proud that he did the right thing and hopefully all of my children would have done the same thing ron o’connor said apparently though this is just who tommy O’connor is tommy’s always been that kind of person he’s very empathetic to other students said irvington physical science teacher dipakonra who’s also one of tommy’s instructors i called his mother and told her she should be proud he never thought
of himself only what the wallet’s owner was feeling and that’s what we call empathy the ability to understand and share the feelings of another it goes hand in hand with compassion but sadly it’s becoming rare In a world that’s increasingly self-centered and self-obsessed armed with self-indulgent tools like social media many in our society especially our youth focus on their own importance issues and needs hoping to elevate their own situation tommy could have done that and made himself a couple thousand dollars richer but he didn’t when we
break out of our self-important bubbles as tommy did and consider others everyone benefits to some degree Yes tommy o’connor might have only gotten 50 instead of 2300 but he set a priceless example as his story spreads his actions will encourage others to think twice and hopefully do what’s right and someday that missing wallet might be his simply put when society lives by the golden rule treating others how we wish to be treated we all win.
