By Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Money found in a lost wallet at Mission Thrift Store to be returned after City Council decision

Feb 5, 2018 | 2:44 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Lethbridge City Council unanimously voted to support the Lethbridge Police Service returning 15,200 in Ghanaian Cedi currency to the Mission Thrift Store on Monday after a lengthy process of trying to find the money’s owner.

That works out to approximately $3,500 in Canadian dollars.

The story of this money began on April 16, 2017, when Store Manager Marlene Braak called Lethbridge Police about a wallet that had been found at their store.

Police then began a search to find whoever owner the wallet, and on May 15, 2017 sent out a media release to try and get the word out to no avail.

Then on Sept. 5, 2017 police reported checking with the Lethbridge Ethnic Board and the Lethbridge Immigration Board but couldn’t find any leads. That same day they asked the Mission Thrift Store to put up a poster inside their store advising about the wallet.

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On Jan. 29, 2018 a letter was received by the City Clerk from Braak outlining the background information, and the request to have the money returned.

The request for a decision was brought in front of council at the meeting on Monday, Feb. 5, and Councillor Ryan Parker read the resolution after noting council doesn’t face this kind of request very often.

“All the processes through the Municipal Government Act have been followed when it comes to this request, and we’re the only ones that can authorize this money being returned to the Mission Thrift Store,” Parker stated during his remarks.

Store Manager Marlene Braak says it feels great, and that they plan to donate the money to the Bible League of Canada.

“We’re in a partnership with them, and we haven’t told them about this yet, so it’ll be a nice little surprise,” Braak said.

Braak also admitted she wasn’t sure they were going to get the go ahead from council.

“There’s always the teeter totter over which way it’s going to go, so it’s a real bonus for us,” she added.

A lot of time has passed between the time the money in the wallet was found, and the resolution, but Braak says they were aware it had gone unclaimed.

“We were told to write a letter and apparently the letter got lost because we never got a response back. Then Cathy from the Police Service contacted us again to ask if we had sent it, so we had to send it again. This time by hand to make sure it got where it needed to go,” Braak joked adding that was a couple of weeks ago.

Originally the wallet was found on the floor of the Mission Thrift Store by one of Braak’s assistants, so they believe someone dropped it.

“We don’t know whether it fell out of someone’s pocket, or if it fell out of clothing that was donated, and yet after all this time no one came forward to claim it, Braak said.

The Bible League of Canada, the organization the money will be going towards, is a charitable organization that looks to place Bibles into the hands of men, women and young people.

“We said if the money comes back to us we would send it off to them to be used in aiding third world countries and spreading the gospel,” Braak continued. “The money will go towards helping the people in those countries to buy Bibles in their own languages.” 

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