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How About A Nice Story? Girl Finds $4K and Gold Rings in Purse and Couldn’t Sit Still Until She Knew It Was Returned To Its Owner
John Patriquin
Abbie Jacobson and Ra Rim. To reward her good deed, a local bank is sending Abbie’s family to Boston to see her favorite performer, Justin Bieber. A Boston hotel is donating accommodations.
A young Maine girl learned last week that honesty pays — sometimes in very unexpected ways.
Abbie Jacobson was walking into a Sam’s Club holding her father John’s hand in April when she let go to pick up a little green silk purse she saw on the ground.
Inside, the 8-year-old Justin Bieber fan found a wad of $100 bills, a debit card, and a stash of gold rings, bracelets, and earrings without a photo ID anywhere in the purse.
John Patriquin
The green silk purse containing $4,000 that Abbie Jacobson found and returned to Ra Rim.
There were lots of people rushing in and out of the store, but aside from the name “Ra Rim” impressed on the debit card, her family had no clue who might have dropped the purse.
“Abbie just looked right up at us and without any hesitation, said, ‘We need to find who dropped it — they’re going to be so sad,” Abbie’s mother, Jennifer, told the Daily News.
The family searched the store for Ra Rim, but had no luck, so they called the police.
The police took the purse for safekeeping and the family went to their home in Scarborough, upset that things were still unsettled.
“Throughout the night I was sick to my stomach,” Jennifer said. “I thought, if they’re recent immigrants, they’re not going to know to call the police department and that just made me very sad.”
Meanwhile, it wasn’t until that night that Rim, the owner of the purse, discovered it was missing at her home, about 30 minutes away in Westbrook.
Rim is an elderly woman who emigrated from Cambodia to live with her family in southern Maine two years ago. Because there is so much corruption in Cambodia, Rim was used to carrying all of her valuables near her body in the green silk purse.
She had saved up more than $4,000 dollars to visit family in Cambodia and was doing some last-minute shopping at Sam’s Club to prepare for the trip, only a few days away.
She was buying gifts to bring back Cambodia, a deeply impoverished nation.
When Rim realized the money was missing, she grew very upset, her daughter and interpreter, Chansatha Meas, told the Daily News.
Meas came to the United States only about five years ago, but has already become a citizen and sponsored her parents to come over. She said the family would not have been able to make the trip back to Cambodia without that money.
After a long night’s wait, a phone call came for Rim: It was the bank that issued her debit card.
Turns out, Abbie’s mother called the bank on her daughter’s insistence to find out who owned all the cash.
dba_vagabond_trader
September 5th, 2012
Lovely story.
xthred
September 5th, 2012
Beautiful.
mickey_moussaoui
September 5th, 2012
Good thing she called the bank. The police would of kept the stash and claimed it was drug money
Stirrin the B.S.
September 5th, 2012
What a valuable lesson Abbie learned. This is a good start to my day.
AbigailAdams
September 5th, 2012
Gee, I don’t know, to me this story highlights, more, the exceptionalism of being honest and that makes me kind of sad. I know she’s a child and should be recognized for choosing well and making the right decision, but there were adults involved and a debit card which, while not “photo ID”, is certainly proof of identification. Would we have been hearing about this story, I wonder, if the debit card hadn’t been there?
Ya sure
September 5th, 2012
A Beautiful Girl.
norman einstein
September 5th, 2012
Holy crap!
That Cambodian woman looks exACTly like someone I know.
She owns an art gallery!
Boobie the Rocket Dog
September 5th, 2012
Justin Bieber fan? Is she ever going to be disappointed. Hope the rest of her trip is enjoyable.
Maudie N Mandeville
September 5th, 2012
“Meas came to the United States only about five years ago, but has already become a citizen and sponsored her parents to come over.”
So that’s how it’s supposed to work?
Maudie N Mandeville
September 5th, 2012
“both say the experience taught them about the goodness and diversity”
Forgive me, but 1) I don’t believe either one of the families used the word diversity in their interview. 2) If so, I would really like to here their explanation as to what it taught them about ‘diversity’.
This sounds like liberal gobbledygook. “Hey, there are white Scandinavians who can be honest and friendly with Cambodians! Who would have thunk it?”
Maudie N Mandeville
September 5th, 2012
And one last point: Is this what we’ve come to in our country; a family has struggled with the expenses of health care in recent years, Abbie’s father just had a heart attack, and the girl must visit the hospital frequently because of severe asthma, so Bank of America is sending her to a Justin Bieber concert?
All responses beginning with “You’re a heartless asshole” have been disabled.
eternal cracker p
September 5th, 2012
She didn’t save the $4k or own the gold rings. All that should have been returned to the real rightful owner, the government, for equal and fair distribution.
muddjuice (Absolutist)
September 5th, 2012
@ mickey_moussaoui
Really? What kind of community do you live in where the cops do that? Or are you just bitter because you got a ticket for running a red light recently….?
RosalindJ
September 5th, 2012
I think it’s a lovely story. The young girl was motivated by honesty and altruism.
@muddjuice – you really need to read up on asset forfeiture. It’s the biggest game around in some communities, sad to say.
Noelegy
September 5th, 2012
Her parents raised her right.
serfer62
September 5th, 2012
Mudjuice…really? Have you ever seen the stats on things that dissappear from the “evidense locker”? Thats how my Colt .45acp vanished.
As to Rim…she obviously has learned that immagrents are supposed to pay taxes to the PunkOTUS
been around here much?
September 5th, 2012
who the hell is ra rim and why the hell should i care about how he throws his money around? i don’t now and never will listen to ra rap “music”
sheesh…shouldn’t even wasted my time responding
Dontcha Crifermee
September 5th, 2012
Most of the carpenters I have worked with were not that honest, but they did tend to have a lot of purple spots on their finger nails.
Name Redacted
September 5th, 2012
In Cambodia, no one would EVER have returned that money. This is a lesson on what makes Americans different. Probably Christians, too, I’m guessing.
Mountain Dog
September 5th, 2012
Sure not a democrat.
General Ripper
September 5th, 2012
Mountain Dog nailed it. That wonderful, sweet little girl sure as hell will not grow up to be a Democrat.