Stranger spends 12 days tracking down man who lost his £1,000 salary
By Community Correspondent
A Brazilian man who lost more than £1,000 in cash has been reunited with his money after a stranger who found it spent 12 days trying to track him down.
Matheus Reginaldo Celestino, 24, lost the money on August 24 while working in Ibiraçu, in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state.
The construction worker had stopped to eat at a barbecue restaurant before continuing on his way. When he put his hand in his pocket, he realised the money was gone.
The cash was his salary for the month and was also meant to help pay child support for his daughter.
Shortly afterwards, Pedro Moro found the money on his way to his car.
Rather than keeping it, Pedro recorded a video showing the cash, where he had found it and the time, before taking it home and starting a search for its owner.
The two men had actually been close to one another that day without realising it.
While Matheus was searching around the barbecue restaurant, Pedro was nearby with the money he had just found.
For the next 12 days, Pedro kept checking social media and asking local people whether anyone had lost money, without revealing exactly what he had found.
Eventually, Matheus saw the search on Instagram and got in touch.
But Pedro didn't simply hand over the cash. He wanted to make sure he was returning it to the right person.
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A photograph of Matheus was shown to people who had been at the barbecue restaurant on the day the money went missing.
The owner of the restaurant, Brenner Modenasi, recognised him as the man who had come in looking for his missing money.
“He was looking down. I asked what had happened and he explained that he had lost all his money,” Brenner told Brazilian news site UOL.
Matheus also described the notes he had lost, giving Pedro another way to check thathe was the genuine owner.
Once Pedro was satisfied, the money was returned to Matheus 12 days after it had disappeared.
The pair finally met in person for the handover, bringing a happy ending to what had been a stressful search for Matheus.
For Pedro, finding the money was just the beginning. He could have walked away with it, but instead spent nearly two weeks trying to find the person who had lost it.
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And for Matheus, the return of his salary meant getting back money he had feared was gone for good.
