Lost Wallet With $6,300 Cash Returned to Owner
— -- A New Jersey woman has $6,300 back in her possession thanks to the integrity of a stranger in another state who found the wallet in a parking lot.
Ashkhen Pogosyan was leaving a Whole Foods store in Fairfield, Connecticut, Sunday afternoon when she spotted the wallet, bulging with cash, on the ground.
Pogosyan picked up the wallet, which had identification inside, and immediately called her boyfriend, a police officer in the neighboring city of Bridgeport.
Pogosyan's boyfriend, Officer Kevin Cronin, who was off-duty at the time, told her exactly what to do with the cash: Turn it over to police.
"So she met with me at police headquarters and handed it over to me,” Cronin said at a news conference Tuesday.
Cronin then handed the money over to the Fairfield Police Department, which used the identification found inside the wallet to track down the money's owner, a woman from New Jersey described by police as in her 30s who was visiting a friend at a local hospital.
"We asked her a series of questions to make sure that she’s the rightful owner and turned the money back to her," Fairfield Police Lt. Jim Perez told ABC News. "She was very, very happy that she got the money back."
When reached by ABC News, the woman, who asked not to be identified, said she has thanked Pogosyan for her help.
"I did have contact with the woman who found it and thanked her personally," she said.
The incident shows police officers are always protecting things, even when off duty, as Officer Cronin was last Sunday, Lt. Perez said.
"The cop was off duty and they didn’t have to do anything," Perez said. "We’re talking cash. I can’t tell you how many purses and wallets we get on a monthly basis where the cash is gone.
"I can’t tell you how incredible it is that the officer said, 'We have to give this back immediately.’”
