After Homeless Man Returned Grandmother’s Lost Wallet, Her 12-Yr-Old Granddaughter Raised $50,000 For Him

When a homeless man returned a grandmother’s full wallet, which he discovered while searching through a dumpster for food, the elderly woman’s granddaughter helped collect more than $50,000 to assist him find a permanent home.

Sean Currey, a homeless guy, was hunting for something to eat inside a trash behind a coffee shop when he noticed a wallet full of cash and credit cards on the parking lot ground. Evelyn Topper, 80, of San Rafael, California, had misplaced her wallet earlier that day while taking her 12-year-old granddaughter out for coffee.

“I ripped through my car and my house [looking for it],” Evelyn explained. “I knew it had to fall someplace… Everything was in this little pocketbook. Every credit, debit, and Medicare card is accepted. Everything I possess is mine. I was in a bad mood.”

Despite the fact that Sean was homeless and hungry, he opted not to use the money and cards in the wallet and instead phoned Evelyn, who was 80 years old, to inform her that her wallet had been recovered.

“Anybody in a situation when they’re homeless, cold, weary, and hungry, if they find a credit card, they’ll think about [using] it,” Sean, 57, acknowledged. “However, whether you will act on it is an another matter.”

He added, “I’d rather be cold and hungry and know I did the right thing.”

Sean took out his phone and dialed the number he discovered inside the wallet, and Evelyn expressed her relief after chatting with him.

Evelyn remembered, “I started screaming.” “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Sean just answered, “Why would I return the wallet when I was practically starving?” when questioned afterwards why he would do so.

“Because I have a heart,” she says, and “because that is how I was raised.”

Mikayla Gounard, 12, was moved to do something special after discovering that Sean, a man who had been homeless for five years, had returned her grandmother’s wallet. With her birthday approaching, Mikayla had already planned a drive-by birthday celebration in which her friends would help give to a charity of her choosing, so she decided to use the cash to support this good and honest homeless guy who had assisted her grandma.

Mikayla was able to gather $475 for Sean before the end of her birthday, and she and her mother personally delivered the money to him in a parking lot.

Mikayla stated, “I got to watch him smile, and it made me extremely happy.”

Sean was greatly affected by a 12-year-old girl’s compassion and willingness to help him.

“I was completely moved. Knowing that individuals her age want to assist was refreshing,” Sean remarked. “It made me feel really unique and honored that they would go out of their way for me.”

But Mikayla wanted to assist Sean even more, and her family’s friends wanted to know what else they could do to aid this wonderful homeless man. Mikayla and her mother, Vanessa, decided to put up a GoFundMe page so that others may contribute to Sean’s cause of getting him “off the streets and into a temporary housing arrangement that keeps him safe and warm.”

The GoFundMe states, “This is Mikayla, my 12-year-old daughter – and Sean, a homeless gentleman who found her grandmother’s wallet in a garbage and returned it with everything in it.” “An unusual couple whose lives were connected as a result of one act of honesty and another of charity. What started with a misplaced wallet turned into Mikayla’s birthday fundraising on the side of the road, and has now grown into a family friendship.”

“How can you assist me? We’d want to get Sean off the streets and into a temporary housing situation that keeps him safe and warm in the short term. He’s now on the waiting list for one of the coveted fifty (50) Marin County Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, which will help him find a more permanent housing solution.”

Sean also intended to construct a row of tiny cottages for himself and a few other homeless individuals in the neighborhood who he knew were in desperate need.

“In the long run, with your help, we’d want to work with Sean to build a sustainable row of small houses for the whole San Rafael homeless community, utilizing his design and building expertise.”

“This isn’t a charity situation. It’s all about compassion, which is the purest expression of love.”

“Please spread the word far and wide so that we can all work together to eradicate homelessness. Let us learn to plant a seed and watch it develop from our children… MANY THANKS!!!!”

Within weeks, donations from good individuals all across the world had generated more than $50,000 for Sean. Mikayla and her mother assisted Sean in opening a bank account and depositing the funds into his account.

“Sean created a bank account, received, endorsed, and deposited the cash after waiting 2+ weeks for your kind gifts to be released! All the thank yous in the world won’t be enough to express our gratitude to you, our GoFundMe community. We are now collaboratively imagining the best approach to aid Sean’s friends and our local homeless community in helping design, build, and take pleasure in their own sustainable homes now that our short-term aim of getting Sean off the streets and back on his feet has been accomplished.”

Sean has been staying in a pleasant local hotel room with a kitchen and hot shower while he searches for a camper trailer to call home in the near term while he begins building small dwellings to house the homeless with his past construction skills.

Sean has expressed his heartfelt gratitude to everyone and said he “feels incredibly lucky.”

“Who would have guessed that returning a wallet to someone I didn’t know would lead to anything so wonderful?” Sean remarked. “I think I’ve got a decent heart. Maybe if I keep doing the right thing, more people will, and the world will change for the better, although in a tiny way.”

Watch the video below.