Doing the Right Thing: Milton Girls Commended for Returning Wallet Lost at South Shore Plaza

Braintree, MA—One decision made by three Milton girls helped give a happy ending to what was a really bad situation for a Mansfield woman at the South Shore Plaza.

Thursday, Milton residents Eva O'Mahony; Lilly Goode; and Bridget Hoey were at Braintree Town Hall to be commended for not only returning a wallet lost at the South Shore Plaza by Mansfield resident Maureen DeLuca but for handing it over with not one item missing. The meeting was the first time DeLuca met the three girls.

"We're very appreciative in the Town of Braintree. These three girls need to be recognized for doing the right thing. It does give you a great feeling of faith and comfort when kids raised here do the right thing," Mayor Joseph Sullivan said.

On June 28, DeLuca was leaving the Tokyo Japanese Steak House at the mall after her birthday dinner with her son and grandson when she lost her wallet. She said she thinks it fell out of her purse while she was putting her grandchild in a car. About 20 minutes after leaving the restaurant, she went to put gas in her car and that's when she realized her wallet was missing.

Meanwhile, the three 13-year-old girls were on their way to Target when Hoey noticed something on the ground in the parking lot. After finding $980 inside the wallet, the girls went inside the mall to hand the item over to a police officer.

"There was a moment when we thought this was a lot of money but we were leaning toward giving it to the police, O'Mahony said.

Police Chief Russell Jenkins said returning the wallet to DeLuca wasn't simple because the only item they had that could possibly identify the owner was a receipt from Rite-Aid. After calling the store to obtain DeLuca's credit card number and using it to contact her bank, Sgt. Joe Molloy was able to reach DeLuca on July 1 and ask her if she was missing anything.

When DuLuca got her wallet back four days later, everything was there, including the money she was going to put towards a car payment.

"$980 was in there and every dollar was still in the wallet," DeLuca said.

"A lot my friends said 'why didn't you take the money?' My cousin said 'you should've taken it' but this is a lot of money that you wouldn't want to take unless you give someone a chance to claim it," Hoey said.

While things do go missing at the mall, it is not often they are recovered, Jenkins said. Just recently, police received a report of a wallet that went missing at the sofas near the Apple Store and it has yet to turn up.

"This goes to show you it happens all the time and we seldom get it back," Jenkins said.

For their good deed, the South Shore Plaza gave the each of the girls a gift bag with makeup, earbuds, and a gift card the girls said they plan on using at Sephora, Aeropostale, and Target. DeLuca gave the girls thank you cards, with a cash reward for their deed.

"I just want to say thank you to three wonderful young ladies. I admire you so much for you honesty and integrity. You made a very honest choice," DeLuca told the girls.

Mayor Joseph Sullivan issued a proclamation naming the girls honorary Braintree citizens.

"It gives you a good feeling to know you did the right thing. If I had that much money I wouldn't want to lose that," Goode said.