A family accidentally left tens of thousands of dollars in cash at an Applebee's restaurant in Fresno. But an honest server turned it in when they found it.
Erika and Bertha Gonzalez walked into the Fresno Police Department to find the treasure they figured no one would ever return. It took a cash counting machine to add up the $32,000 the mother and daughter mistakenly left in a booth at Applebee's.
"I think she took it out when she took out her wallet to pay and she didn't put it back in her bag,” Erika Gonzalez explained. The two made several stops on Wednesday, including a bank. They didn't originally plan on carrying the cash all day.
"We were going to deposit it to the safe box and they told us they didn't have any available,” Erika Gonzalez said.
On Wednesday night, they realized the money was missing and were sick about it. The cash is savings from the family's businesses, including rental properties and a Bay area restaurant.
Sammy Ashworth is the detective who first learned a large sum of money was found, then he got a call from the family. “They described the bag that it was in and the denominations and they determined, yeah, it was their money. It was legally obtained and they were just an average working family that had made a mistake,” he said.
The server who waited on the family, and also found the money didn't want to talk about his good deed. In fact, Applebee's managers aren't even sure he will take any reward from the company or the Gonzalez family.
“He made it very clear that he did it because it was the right thing to do, not that he wanted anything in return,” said Carrie Hellyer, the Applebee's area director. There are no surveillance cameras in the area where the family was seated. Applebee's says that's all the more reason this employee's integrity is remarkable.
"That's a lot of money. That's more than a year's salary for many of our employees and to have the knee-jerk reaction immediately be 'let's find a way to get this back to who it belongs to,' I'm very fortunate,” Hellyer said.
The Gonzalez family plans to thank the server and police for reuniting them with their vacation money and family savings. "I am so glad they found it. I really appreciate it,” Erika Gonzalez said.
"I told them their next stop had better be the bank. Or at least somewhere safe where that money can be stored,” officer Ashworth said.
The family hopes the server will accept at least a little something as a reward. Meanwhile, the family vacation to Puerta Vallarta and Guadalajara is now back on.
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