Good Samaritan finds $12,000 cash in a Market Basket parking lot, returns it to owner

SHREWSBURY ― When Van Ha got home Sunday from her weekly shopping trip to Market Basket, she realized that something was missing: An envelope containing $12,000 in cash.

She quickly called her nephew, Truong Huynh, for help and they drove back to the grocery store in search of the envelope.

Manager Dan Desfosses caught up with the frantic family in the parking lot and offered to look through surveillance cameras to see if they could figure out exactly when the envelope disappeared. They found footage of Ha getting out of the car earlier that day and walking into the store, but it didn't show her dropping anything.

"I took down their name and number and said I'd call them if anything turned up," Desfosses explained. "Then when I walked back inside the store, sure enough, there was a gentleman standing at the service counter with the cash."

The gentleman, a regular shopper who goes by Skip, rushed outside with Desfosses and caught the family as they were leaving.

"We were about to leave when the manager came over to us with a man named Skip. He'd found the money. We were so happy," Huynh said, adding the money was meant to support their family and, in some cultures and generations, it's not uncommon for people to carry large sums of money with them.

"We were so excited, we left right away and went home without thinking about it," Huynh said. "Then we wanted to thank Skip, so we went back to Market Basket with a reward."

Skip, who did not disclose his last name to the family, had gone home, but his girlfriend just so happens to be an employee at the store on Hartford Turnpike, so she was able to take the reward, about $300, to him.

"It takes a special kind of person to do something so honest and selfless, and Skip, you are a true example of integrity and compassion," Huynh wrote on social media. "Thank you, Skip — you’ve touched more lives than you know today."

"It was just so very nice," Desfosses said. "I don't know a lot of people who would have done that — I mean, finding just a bank teller envelope, no name on it, you know."