Sometimes it takes a little nudging to get someone to do the right thing.
New London resident Carmen Scholl discovered that the hard way after losing her wallet with more $1,600 in it in the parking lot of a Shawano grocery store.
But, with the help of a video surveillance camera, the Shawano Police Department and social media, all of her cash was returned. She’s still out of luck with her driver’s license, credit cards and Social Security Card, though.
“Without the video footage from Charlie’s County Market (where the wallet was lost), we would not have had any evidence showing who picked up the wallet,” said Lt. Dan Conradt of the Shawano Police Department. “Placing the photo on Facebook led to an anonymous tip of the identity of the lady who picked it up.”
On April 9, Scholl went to a local pawn shop and walked out with $1,635 in her wallet.
After losing the wallet later that day, Scholl placed an ad with NEW Media’s newspaper group and offered a $200 reward for information that would lead to the return of her wallet.
Video footage from the store was viewed, and a week later, the Shawano police posted a picture on their Facebook page asking for help identifying the woman who was recorded picking up the wallet.
After receiving a tip identifying the woman, Conradt went to her house in Gillett. She told him she found the wallet, but it was empty.
He told her it was not a case of “finders keepers,” and they have video recordings and know the wallet’s contents.
“The difference in this instance is that it’s not like finding a couple bucks on the ground somewhere,” Conradt said. “With this case, there were cards with the owner’s name and information on them along with a substantial amount of money in the wallet. A conscious decision was made to keep the wallet in spite of knowing who it belongs to, which takes it down the road of becoming a theft of property.”
The city ordinance for theft can cost anywhere between $323-$575 plus restitution owed to the victim.
At 6 a.m. April 17, the Gillett woman called the police department and apologized. She said she would bring the cash to the department April 20, but she did not have the credit cards, driver’s license or Social Security card.
“The wallet and $1,700 cash were turned over to Carmen (Scholl) on April 21,” Conradt said. “The extra cash was for the loss of cards and replacement costs. She is still out her ID and cards from the wallet.”
Conradt has advice for anyone on either side of a case like this.
“Don’t carry or store a lot of cash in places where you stand a chance of losing it, or someone else seeing it and being tempted to take it,” he said.
And if you find a wallet with cash and identification, do the right thing and return it.
