$10,000 found in used car trade-in at Crown Hyundai in St. Petersburg returned to owner

(WFLA/NBC NEWSCHANNEL) Crown Hyundai used car technician Brett Cadoratch was cleaning out cars that had recently been traded in at a St. Petersburg dealership last week when he spotted something.

“I saw an envelope and I’m thinking, ‘Oh it’d be nice if it was full of money,’ and it was,” Cadoratch recalls.

It was stuffed with $10,000 in cash.

“All hundreds. Brand new,” Cadoratch says. “Obviously you think about keeping it, but I knew I couldn’t. I wasn’t raised that way.”

So he took it to his manager and together they tried to find the owner.

They soon discovered the car belonged to a 70-year-old woman who had recently been widowed. Her husband had stashed that money away as a surprise gift before he died.

The mother wants to remain anonymous, but her daughter, Belinda Sawyers, is in awe. Sawyers said, “For that individual, to be honest, to give that money back, says a lot about the person and about the company that he works for, and we just wanted to say thank you to him because he’s an extremely special person.”

Her mother has struggled to cope since the loss. “It’s been extremely difficult. He was her best friend,” said Sawyers.

On Friday, the owner returned and gave donuts to the whole service department. And she gave a very special gift to Brett as a thank you.

[“source-wptv”]