A man who donated a significant sum of money that he found a year ago to a charity has been praised for his honesty and kindness by gardaí.
In a post on Facebook, gardaí in the Westmeath region said the man noticed a lot of cash “blowing in the wind” as he was out driving “with his lovely collie dog” on 20 September 2024.
“He stopped his car and collected as much as he could and put it into his vehicle. He drove straight to Mullingar Garda Station to hand in the cash he had found,” the post stated.
Any item found and handed over to gardaí has to remain in lost and found for 366 days, so that efforts can be made to trace the owners.
However in this case, despite “exhaustive efforts by members of the gardaí in Mullingar”, no owner claimed the cash, which was “in the thousands”.
Earlier this month, the finder was contacted, to let him know that no owner had come forward within the 366 days, and he could rightfully claim it.
When the man arrived at the garda station last week to collect the money, he said he was donating the whole amount to the Guide Dogs for the Blind and Special Assistant Dogs.
While he explained his reason behind his donation, gardaí are not releasing details to protect the man’s anonymity.
“Thank you for being such an honest gentleman, it pays to be such. An Garda Síochána would have liked to name the gentleman, but promised not to,” the post concluded.