A Good Samaritan who found a lost wallet on a Frontier flight returned it to its rightful owner — but not before adding extra money to it just because.
The wallet belonged to Hunter Shamatt, a 20-year-old 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 mom, Jeannie Shamatt, wrote on Facebook that they were “fearing the worst” and assumed that everything would be gone. But to their surprise, her son received a package containing a note and his missing wallet.
“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!!!” the mystery sender wrote.
Jeannie also shared a picture of the note, signed only with the initials “TB,” in the hopes of finding “this amazing person.”
The good deed doer has since been identified as Todd Brown, a father of five who found the wallet when he went to put his seatbelt on during his flight.
Brown told Yahoo 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.
When he was getting ready to send the wallet, that’s when he got the idea to add some money to it.
“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.”
After getting the wallet back, Hunter and Jeannie eventually discovered the identity of the mystery man 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 told Yahoo. “They assumed it was gone forever. So when he opened it, she said he just started screaming, ‘No way! No way!’”
Jeannie posted an update on Facebook after speaking with Brown, reflecting on what his kindness meant 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.
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Others commented on Jeannie’s post, amazed at Brown’s act of kindness.
“Wow what a nice surprise and what a nice person to return your wallet plus extra money. Thank you for your kindness!”
“May God bless this wonderful person with many blessings in return!! People like this are hard to come by in this world! AMAZING!!”
“Restores your faith in human kindness.”
“This is amazing! Still a lot of great people in the world!”
Brown said he never expected to get so much attention, according to Yahoo.
“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.”
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