Good Samaritan Returns $10,000 Cash To Laguna Beach Restaurateur

LAGUNA BEACH (CBS) — Laguna Beach Police are praising a good samaritan Thursday who returned $10,000 in cash to a newly relocated restaurateur.

The restaurateur, who just moved to Newport Coast from Miami, had gone to a bank in Laguna Beach on Saturday to withdraw $10,000 to pay a contractor renovating the new restaurant he plans to open on Pacific Coast Highway, Lt. Jason Kravetz said.

After he left the bank, the man went to Main Beach to sit down on a park bench, drink some coffee and make some phone calls, Kravetz said. When he got up to leave, he forgot to take his wallet.

Someone else picked up the wallet and handed it to the lifeguards at Main Beach, Kravetz said.

"When the lifeguards opened the wallet they see all that cash in it and call the police," Kravetz said.

Officer Matt Meadows saw a Florida driver's license in the wallet, so he went back to the station and started searching online for a phone number. He discovered the wallet's owner had a cell phone number for Orange County and called him, Kravetz said.

The restaurateur was "shocked" when he saw the money was still in the wallet, Kravetz said.

He wanted to thank the person who turned it in, but police don't know who it is.

If you have information about the incident, you're urged to contact the Laguna Beach Police Department.