In a heartwarming story of mercy shown by a rank stranger, a Good Samaritan who found a lost wallet on a Frontier flight returned it to its rightful owner — and even added extra money to it.
The wallet belonged to 20-year-old Hunter Shamatt, who was on his way to his sister’s wedding in Las Vegas earlier this month. It contained his ID, $60 cash, a debit card and a signed paycheck.
His mother, Jeannie Shamatt, was livid as she wrote on Facebook that they were “fearing the worst” and assumed that everything would be lost.
But to everybody’s surprise, her son received a package which contained his missing wallet and a sweet note.
The note read, “Found this on a Frontier flight from Omaha to Denver-row 12, seat F wedged between the seat and wall. Thought you might want it back. All the best. PS: I rounded your cash up to an even $100 so you could celebrate getting your wallet back. Have fun!!!”
Jeannie also shared a picture of the note, signed only with the initials “TB,” in the hopes of finding “this amazing person.”
On our way to Vegas for my daughters wedding last week, Hunter lost his wallet. Unfortunately it had 60.00 cash, his…
Posted by Jeannie Shamatt on Thursday, November 15, 2018
The Good Samaritan has been identified as Todd Brown, a father of five who found the wallet when he went to put his seat belt on during his flight.
Brown said, he thought about giving it to the flight crew, but wanted to make sure Hunter got it back.
“I saw he was just a kid, 20 years old, he had a paycheck in there, so I figured, ‘Well, he’s doing his best to make ends meet,’ but I was 20 once, and that’s a lot of money for a kid,” Brown said.
He got the idea of adding extra money to it, when was getting ready to send the wallet.
“I wanted to have a little fun, I wanted him to have a little fun,” he said. “I imagined what it would be like to get your wallet back, so I added a little bit so he could celebrate.”
Hunter and Jeannie got to know who the mystery man was and connected with Brown to tell him how grateful they were.
“They were very thankful. Hunter was very thankful. He told me he has some student loans and a car payment that he needed to make so the timing was right,” Brown said. “They assumed it was gone forever. So when he opened it, she said he just started screaming, ‘No way! No way!’”
Jeannie also updated the post on Facebook after she had spoken to Brown and sharing about how this kindness meant so much to her and her son.
“I try to teach my children to do the right things in life, help people when you can regardless of the outcome. This story is more about restoring faith in people than anything. Everything in the wallet we could [have] replaced. We hear a lot of bad news but not enough good news. I personally want to thank Todd Brown and his wife for restoring faith that there are amazing people out there, the world is not as grim as it’s being made out to be,” she wrote.
Brown said he did not do it for publicity and is overwhelmed by people’s reaction, “I just wanted to do the right thing, it always feels good to do the right thing,” he said. “It’s really not that hard to be a good person.”