Christmas Cash Lost and Found Thanks to Honest Oklahomans

A Christmas shopping trip nearly turned into a nightmare for an Oklahoma woman, but was saved thanks to some early Christmas spirit.

The day started simply enough.  C.J. West retrieved some cash from an ATM to do some shopping, and then proceeded to run a few errands before buying gifts.  One of those errands involved visiting Office Depot to purchase some ink cartridges for her printer.  West took the cartridges to the checkouts.  That's when the whole shopping trip changed.

"I reached into my pocket to pay, get out my money," West said.  "And nothing was there but my debit card."

West paid with her debit card, but was puzzled about what exactly she had done with the money.  She checked her purse, her car, and then set about to re-trace her steps that day, with no luck.  

But her luck changed when she called Office Depot.  Another customer had found the money and returned it.

"Our cashier had been approached by another customer that had found some money," said Terry McKey, the store's manager.  "In this case there were two loyal regular customers that are in here all the time.  One took care of the other for us."

West offered McKey and his employees a reward but was refused.

"It's just something that, you just do the right thing as a person," McKey said.

West did find a way to pay a reward, though.  She deposited $50 into a Salvation Army Red Kettle that same day.

"It made our Christmas a lot brighter," West said.