Sean C. Morgan
When he saw hundred dollar bills fluttering across Highway 20, Don Schatz of Sweet Home went to work gathering them.
Lynn Garrett’s car was receding in the distance to the east as he headed back to his campsite on Labor Day.
Schatz gathered some $1,370 off Highway 20, put the money back into the wallet and took it to Sweet Home Police Department, left a message on Garrett’s answering machine at his home in Rickreall.
Garrett sent a letter to the editor last week.
“I was camping at Foster Lake, and we went to Sweet Home for breakfast,” Garrett said. “When I got back to camp, I realized I had lost my wallet.
“We went back to the restaurant and looked all over to see if we could find it, and we could not. I decided it was a lost cause and it was gone.
“When I got home that evening, I had a message on the answering machine that the Police Department had my wallet and everything appeared to be there. It was such a considerable sum of money, let alone my credit cards and such.
“When I picked up my wallet, I found out that a very honest gentleman by the name of Don Schatz had turned in my wallet.
“Thanks to Don. When anyone asks me where I grew up. I am still proud to say Sweet Home, Class of 1957.”
Garrett said he must have been carrying his wallet in his hand and set it on top of the car.
When it was lost, he figured it “was a done deal,” he said. When he got it back and it had everything in it, “I just couldn’t believe it really. That kind of money would tempt an honest person.”
“I’d been lucky for 65 years,” Garrett said. He thought maybe it was just his turn for bad luck. “I’d written it off. The funny part is, I was going to stop at the Police Department on the way out, but I just forgot to. I had already just kind of written it off….
“I think he (Schatz) deserves a lot of credit.”
Garrett has owned and operated an RV business in Rickreall since 1989.
Schatz saw a white car heading east, picking up speed after apparently turning out of the Skyline Restaurant, he said. “Pretty soon I see something fly off the back of his car.”
Schatz pulled into the center lane to grab it and chase the white car down, but money was flying everywhere.
“Hundreds were everywhere,” Schatz said. “I was like, ‘This guy’s going to be wrecked.’ I could see it was money. It didn’t matter if it was hundreds or thousands.”
Schatz wanted to catch Garrett and let him know, but the money was blowing across the road. Dodging traffic, he started trying to gather it up.
“After I see the hundred dollar bills, I put my hand up and they stopped,” Schatz said.
Asked if he was tempted by the money, he said, “Not at all. Look around.”
In his home are pictures of Jesus and the Lord’s Supper. His shirt bore the phrase, “He reigns.”
“I just knew He would be crushed,” Schatz said. The right thing to do was turn it in, so he did. “The nice thing about it, what goes around comes around. I’ve tried the bad things, and the bad came out of it.”
In this case, he was rewarded.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Schatz said. “I was worried about the guy.”
Garrett dropped by Schatz’s home and gave a $200 reward to Schatz’s son, Brandon.
“We went down and got us some pizza right away,” Schatz said. The reward came at a perfect time, right between pay periods.
Schatz works at Triple T Studs. When he saw the money, his children Timmy and Miranda were with him.