A shopping spree.
That’s what a trio of teens initially admitted to envisioning when they found a bag stuffed with $15,000 at a McDonalds last week. Gleefully running down the aisles at their favourite stores, throwing cash around like wealthy playboys of the western world. It all seemed too good.
Their self-indulgent fantasy, however, was quickly overridden by their collective conscience, and in the end, they happily returned the cash to an even happier Altaf Kassam. He’s the concert promoter who errantly left the considerable stash behind, thinking he’d never see it again.
The teens, David Nixon, Michael Simonassi and Milos Zivanovic recalled the moment when they peeked into the abandoned bag. “We opened it and saw hundreds … and said, ‘Oh, my God, there’s at least $10,000 here,'" recalled Nixon.
“And then we all started laughing,” he added, “ because it was so much money and so many hundred dollar bills.”
There were 149 $100 bills to be exact.
“We didn't want to mess the guy over because it is a lot of money and who knows what it may have been for,” said Simonassi. “So we decided to give it back."
On Friday, the honest boys met the grateful owner of the bag and its precious contents.
“They must be great kids,” Kassam said after greeting each of them with a handshake and a hug. “(They must) come from very good families.”
Kassam was more than a little surprised that someone had found, and actually turned the cash over to police. He thought he would have to suffer the significant monetary loss.
“It was like I was having a heart attack,” he recalled.
But in the end, honesty was the best policy for all involved. Kassam gave each of the boys $500 - money they say they’ll use towards purchasing mini bikes.
