by ANDY SEVILLA
Though most passersby would probably overlook, if even notice, a bag on the side of the road, two Buda city workers found a bag of money along Main Street last month and returned it to its rightful owner.
City public works employees, Joe Garcia and Justin Ivicic, were driving down Main Street on their way to check on some wells when they came across what appeared to be a bank money bag on the side of the road, Public Works Director Mike Beggs said. They looked in the bag and noticed about $500, a wallet, and a cell phone.
Beggs said Garcia and Ivicic noticed the address on the drivers license, came back to the office to google it, and set out to return the belongings to the person on the ID card, Cindy Lott, who lives in the Garlic Creek subdivision.
“I was so surprised and happy to see the guys bring my bag,” Lott said. “It was a blessing.”
Lott said her neighbors took her to the grocery store for some purchases on Sunday, July 15, because she and her husband share one vehicle and he was using it. When they returned to Lott’s home, she said the neighbors helped take her groceries into her garage, and in an effort to expedite the process she set her bank bag, with her wallet, $580, and a her cell phone, on her truck’s bumper.
The next morning when her husband left for work, Lott’s bank bag still on the truck’s bumper, also left with him and disappeared along the way, she said.
Lott did not notice her belongings were missing until she looked for her cell phone that Monday morning and it was nowhere to be found, sending her into a search frenzy, she said. After searching at the grocery store and every other place her belongings could possibly be to no avail, she returned home distressed, she said. Shortly after, Garcia and Ivicic made their way to Lott’s home with her belongings intact, prompting her to greet them with hugs and laughter.
Lott said she offered the city workers a reward, but they declined.
“It was very nice of them,” Lott said. “I gave them a hug and we all laughed.”