A Florida man walked into a Wawa bathroom in Palm Beach County, Florida, carrying a black fanny pack that contained proceeds from selling his Pokémon collectibles: $30,023 in cash, according to a police report. The man planned to use the money to help pay for a medical procedure for his sister, the report said.
But after the man left Wawa and was driving south to Coral Springs, he realized he had left his fanny pack stuffed with cash in the bathroom. When he returned to the convenience store, the bag was gone.
He called the Riviera Beach Police Department that day, May 3, prompting officers to open a grand-theft investigation and search for the fanny pack and the man who took it.
“I thought I was absolutely screwed,” said the fanny pack’s owner, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted.
When officers identified the suspect a few days later and called him, he said he had been trying to return the money to the owner, according to police.
The man, Luis Salavar, said that after finding the fanny pack on a handicap bar in the bathroom, he searched Wawa and its parking lot multiple times for the man who was in the bathroom before him. He remembered the man had dark curly hair and was wearing beige sandals, blue jeans and a white shirt.
Salavar, 58, said he recognized the owner’s sandals when he returned the fanny pack to him at the police station.
“This is yours,” Salavar recalled saying.
“You’re a lifesaver,” the owner, 24, recalled replying.
Salavar told The Post that he never considered keeping the money.
“$30,000 is great, but it’s not mine to keep,” said Salavar, who added that he works in construction. “I like to earn my money.”
Florida news station WPBF first reported the story.
The man who left the fanny pack in the bathroom, who declined to say what medical procedure his younger sister was undergoing, said he was driving south to a family gathering when he stopped at the Wawa around 8:50 a.m. that day. Salavar pulled off a highway and into Wawa around the same time.
After the man left the store without his bag, a surveillance camera recorded Salavar, wearing a white long-sleeve shirt and a black hat, walking out of the restroom with the fanny pack in his left hand, police said. He searched the store and the parking lot for the bag’s owner, police spokesman Mike Jachles said.
In a white Ford van he was renting, Salavar said he opened the fanny pack in hopes of finding the owner’s identification card. Instead, he said, he discovered $100 and $50 bills.
“My heart just dropped,” Salavar said.
Salavar said he didn’t trust Wawa employees or the police to find the fanny pack’s owner, so he said he tried to locate the owner himself.
Police identified Salavar on May 7 through the van he was driving, according to the police report. Officers asked Salavar to meet at the police station that afternoon to return the fanny pack to its owner.
The fanny pack’s owner counted the money at the station. All of it was there. He said he gave it to his sister a few days later.
“This incident was a lost property,” police concluded in a report, “not a theft.”
The 24-year-old said he has offered to buy Salavar dinner, but Salavar said he declined the offer.
“I just did the right thing,” Salavar said. “I don’t need to be put on a pedestal.”
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