Chandler teen returns missing wallet, stranger gifts big reward
CHANDLER, AZ (AZFamily) — A Chandler teenager is reaping the rewards of doing a good deed. He found a wallet and returned it to its owner, cash included.
Now, Cody Chalmers is the cool kid on the block with a brand-new electric dirt bike. “I did not ever think this would happen,” the eighth-grader said.
It was a gift from a stranger who wanted to pay it forward after hearing about Cody‘s good deed. “I’m really glad that I got this for actually helping someone else out,” said Cody.
At just 14 years old, Cody has shown he’s a person with integrity when faced with an ethical dilemma. Last Friday night, he was riding what’s now considered his old bike when he spotted a wallet in the street near Queen Creek Road and Arizona Avenue in Chandler. “I thought that someone would feel really bad if they lost it, so I was like, I better return this,” he said.
So Cody called his mom and sent her a photo of a woman’s ID that he found in the wallet. He searched on social media and public records websites and tracked down her phone number. “She said that she lost it around 30 minutes before I found it and she was really glad that someone like me found it and that it didn’t get stolen,” said Cody.
In addition to the driver’s license, the wallet’s owner said there were credit cards, health insurance cards, and about $300 in cash inside. Cody‘s mom, Carrie Strecker, is impressed he didn’t take the money.
He’s been saving up for an off-road e-bike for months. And the one he’s had his eye on comes with a nearly $4,000 price tag. She posted in a Facebook group about how proud she is of her son.
“It seemed impossible. An impossible save for him, but he’s been trying so hard so I mentioned in my post that here was this opportunity for him to be able to get what he’s been trying so hard to save for and he could have just walked away with it and nobody really would have known any different and it didn’t even occur to him,” said Strecker.
That inspired a neighbor they don’t know to reward Cody. “He was like, ‘Your motivation and like integrity would get you far in life so that’s why I bought you this,’” said Chalmers, showing off his new e-bike.
And get this: the store where he got it is called “Integrity E-bikes.”
Cody said he knew how to handle the situation because he saw how stressful it was for his dad when someone stole his wallet years ago. “It kind of taught me how bad it is to like take someone’s money, like because their wallet is basically their life,” said Cody.
He hopes other teens learn from his experience that taking the high road is always the right call. “Do the right thing and you will get good things back,” said Cody.
And he has a simple message for his parents who lead by example. “Well, thank you, Dad, for teaching me to return things and Mom,” said Cody with a smile.
Strecker felt it was important to highlight her son’s actions because of all the teen violence we’ve seen lately in the East Valley. She wants people to know there are plenty of good kids out there.
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