What would you do if you found a bag of cash?<\/p>\n
When city of Kent employee Jeff Veach found a money bag with $1,200 early one morning this summer at a cash machine in downtown Kent, he picked up the bag, waved to the security camera and took the money to his boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made sure the camera saw me and waved at it because I didn\u2019t want the bank to think a city employee took the money,\u201d Veach said in a phone interview Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
Veach made a transaction at the cash machine at about 6:30 a.m. July 28 when he heard a \u201cclunk\u201d sound. He opened the deposit box and found a blue money bag sitting there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was $1,200 cash plus checks and change,\u201d Veach said.<\/p>\n
Because the bank had not yet opened, Veach took the money bag to City Hall to give to his boss, City Parks Director Jeff Watling. Veach works as a home-repair specialist for the parks department.<\/p>\n
Watling returned the money to Washington Mutual Bank on West Smith Street when the bank opened. The money belonged to The Glory House Fellowship Church on Central Avenue South in Kent.<\/p>\n
To thank Veach for returning the money, pastors and several members of the church presented him with a certificate of appreciation at the Sept. 16 Kent City Council meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to show you our appreciation for your honesty,\u201d said the Rev. Marvin Mitchell, of Glory House Fellowship Church, at the Council meeting. \u201cIt shows that man can do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reaction from church members surprised Veach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that was nice of them,\u201d the city worker said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have to do that. But it\u2019s cool to be recognized for being honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke also praised Veach at the Council meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want you to know how proud we are,\u201d Cooke told Veach. \u201cWe want to recognize you for modeling for others in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veach, a city home repair specialist, does projects that range from changing shower heads or light bulbs to building patio decks or wheelchair ramps for low to moderate income homeowners. Veach was profiled in a June 7 Kent Reporter article as part of a series of stories on city employees.<\/p>\n
Veach said he never thought about taking the money for himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat goes around, comes around,\u201d Veach said. \u201cMaybe something good will happen to me, like winning the lottery. I\u2019d give up $1,200 for $12 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the money bag had the name of the church printed on it, Veach knew what he had to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe in fate,\u201d Veach said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be cursed, especially by a church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Veach said he hopes people follow his lead if they find money that belongs to someone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, it will show other people that what goes around, comes around,\u201d Veach said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What would you do if you found a bag of cash?
\nWhen city of Kent employee Jeff Veach found a money bag with $1,200 early one morning this summer at a cash machine in downtown Kent, he picked up the bag, waved to the security camera and took the money to his boss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":11387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11386"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}