Last month at the end of June, a 17-year-old found a woman's purse in a shopping cart at the Ralph's grocery store in Chula Vista, California and decided to drive to the owner's house and return it, according to NBC San Diego.
Now, nearly a month later, an online fundraiser started by a friend of the purse's owner has raised over $17,000 for the teenager as a reward for his good deed, according to the Good News Network.
Adrian Rodriquez returned the purse he found that belonged to Eliana Martin, and left with a relative at the house since Martin was not there. She had moved out from the house but hasn't changed her address.
"If someone found my stuff, I’d want them to bring it back to me," Rodriguez said, per NBC San Diego.
"It was a surprise for me. Honestly? It was a surprise for me," Martin said.
Melina Marquez, Martin's former roommate, told the news station that she felt the need to reward Rodriguez after seeing video of him return the lost purse on their security camera.
"I looked into the Ring camera, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. He’s such a young kid.’ I was like, ‘We need to find him and just give him a little piece of gratitude,'" Marquez said.
The Ring camera video was posted to Facebook, as hundreds of strangers helped track down Rodriguez so he could be rewarded. The women then invited him to their house and showed him the online fundraiser they started, which had over $1,000 raised in less than 24 hours.
"I woke up and I had a bunch of messages like, ‘Oh, is this you?’ It was weird," Rodriquez said.
Now, 782 donations have been made to the GoFundMe for a total of $17,749, as of July 18.
"My best friend went to Ralph’s on East Palomar by the Sharp hospital and When she returned the shopping cart she forgot her purse there…♀️ This young man brought it all the way to our house with everything in it, we are trying to reward him," Marquez wrote in the GoFundMe description.
"My aunt opened the door and received it but was confuse and said thank you and came back inside…We think he deserved a great compensation and since a lot of people wanted to help for his good actions here we are…please share so we can let his story be told. He was raise by amazing parents and this needs to be told Gives me hope for our next generation and also never judge a book by its cover."
Rodriguez said that his mother has taught him to "always do the right thing when nobody’s around." At the time when the fundraiser only had a little more than $1,000, Rodriguez added that he didn't have plans for the money besides paying for gas.
"It feels good. I appreciate it. I really do, everything everybody’s doing," Rodriquez said. "My mom always told me since I was little to always do the right thing when nobody’s around."
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