17-Year-Old Gets Over $17K in Reward After Returning Woman’s Missing Purse

• Adrian Rodriguez had just graduated from High School and had no idea that returning a lost purse would bring him praise from his community.
• For his good deed, a fund-raising campaign was created for the 17-year-old and now has gathered more than $17K.
• Adrian credits his mom for telling him to do the right thing even when nobody’s looking.

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Adrian Rodriguez’s mom always tells him to do the right thing even when nobody was around.  And so, when he found a purse at Chula Vista Ralph’s parking lot, he drove to the address written on the owner’s ID.

He just walked straight to the door and hit the button on the ring camera.  Unfortunately, the owner of the purse, Eliana Martin, was not there and he left it with another relative at the house.

When Melina Marquez saw the video on the camera, she said that this kind of good news is what we need these days.  She then informed Eliana Martin that her purse was at her house. Eliana and Melina are former roommates.  Eliana has not changed her address on her ID and so that’s where Adrian returned the purse.

Melina said that they needed to find Adrian to give him a little piece to show their gratitude.  She posted the video on Facebook and that’s when the Chula Vista community stepped up for the teen.

Adrian had no idea of the post and woke up to a bunch of messages asking if it was him.

By then, the two ladies had invited him to their home to personally thank him and got the surprise of his life when he was presented with $1,115 that the community had raised in less than a day.

 The women also launched a GoFundMe account in his honor. It has gathered nearly 800 donations, totaling $17,196 as of this writing.

Adrian can only say, “It feels good. I appreciate it. I really do, everything everybody’s doing.” To which Melina added, “Every parent right now hopes that their children grow up to be just like this young gentleman.”

Source: NBC San Diego