Rewards worth $4,000 have been pledged to Charles Moore, the homeless man who found nearly $21,000 worth of U.S. savings bonds in the trash and returned them to the owner’s family.
Some people were aghast that the family expressed gratitude by giving a $100 tip to Moore, so they came up with their own gifts.
One man sent him eight trash bags filled with bottle returns and a bowl of coins. Three sources pledged a combined $2,500. By the end of the day Monday, two businessmen had given Moore $1,200, a shopping spree at a men’s clothing store and a lead on a job.
The best part?
“Seeing and knowing people care, and they’re willing to help a total stranger,” said Moore, 59, who plans to use the money to find an apartment.
Homeless for the first time, Moore found 31 bonds in a bag of clothes in a Detroit trash bin while searching for empty bottles to return for deposit money.
He took the bonds to his counselors at Neighborhood Service Organization, which provides a daily breakfast to the homeless. Workers at the non-profit group helped him track down the family of the bonds’ owner, Ernest Lehto, who died two years ago.
The bonds, purchased during the 1980s at a face value of $8,900, have matured to $20,738.88.
They were payable to Lehto’s widow. His son, Neil, picked up the bonds at the social service agency. He gave Moore $100 for his honesty–an amount he attributed to his mother.
“I was thankful for it,” said Moore, who lost his job in Toledo as a roofer, moved back to Michigan and can’t find work.
Many readers called and e-mailed, calling the $100 sum cheap.
“That’s a disgrace,” said Tony Grillo, a Michigan general contractor. “You tip a waitress at least 20 percent. It’s money they never would have … had.”
But Lehto, who received scores of vitriolic e-mails and phone calls all weekend, said his 82-year-old mother is the sole beneficiary, and she made the decision about the $100 reward.
“That generation of people doesn’t see this as windfall, they see this as an entitlement,” said Lehto, a lawyer. “That generation of people would consider $100 as an adequate reward.”
Richard Edwards, 75, of Eastpointe disagreed: “He’s an attorney and he should know the going rate for finding stocks and bonds is 10 percent. He should have never allowed his mother to give that poor old guy $100.”
Lehto initially was attacked as a cheapskate by the chief executive officer of Millionairehelp.com, a Web site where cyberbeggars ask people of high incomes for money. But after Lehto explained it was his mother’s decision, the group pledged $1,000 in Ernest Lehto’s name.
“We do believe that this sizzle of the story has caused his family some unfair retribution,” said Ericka Boussarhane, CEO of Millionaire.com. “One thousand dollars would probably be more beneficial to the gentleman.”
Others also stepped up: A woman in Troy pledged $500 to Moore. David Smith of Albuquerque pledged $1,000, saying, “We would have given him the whole amount, period. No questions asked.”
Even a local billiards owner offered Moore a night on the town with food, drinks and unlimited games of pool. “He can be my guest,” said Jesse Nyikon. “He did the right thing.”
Two businessmen in Troy, Dick Wolski and Ken Zorn, pulled together $1,200. They also paid for $250 in clothing for Moore at Men’s Warehouse and lined him up a job interview at a local cleaning company.
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“Here’s a man who by all rights should be worried and thinking about himself but takes the time to think about others,” Wolski said.
“What a lesson,” he said. “Isn’t that what we’re all supposed to be doing?”
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READER CONNECTION
Interested in donating to Charles Moore or the organization that is helping him? Contact Neighborhood Service Organization, 220 Bagley St., Suite 1200, Detroit, MI 48226. Phone 313-961-4890