Costco employee gets rewarded after returning envelope containing almost $4,000 to customer

A Costco employee has certainly proved he is the employee of the month after discovering a envelope of cash while on shift.

John Sotelo had been on shift at Costco in the warehouse in Clovis, California, putting away some cases of water when he noticed something on one of the pallets.

He took a closer look and found that there was an envelope there on the pallet, and looking inside the envelope, John saw that it was filled with cash.

And it turns out that it was no small amount either as the envelope contained some $3,940 in cash.

Rather than take the money for himself, however, John immediately alerted his manager so that the pair could track down the owner of the cash.

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Fortunately, they were able to find the person's Costco membership number.

They also cross-referenced that with the CCTV and were then able to find the woman who had lost the money.

Naturally, she was extremely relieved to have the cash returned to her, saying that the money had been for her children to go to school.

John later recounted the incident, saying: "It was crazy because my manager walked me outside, and the member was right there.

"She was shaking my hand for a good twenty seconds.

"So yeah, she told me like, 'Oh, you know, I'm so glad you found this. That's for my kids to go to school.' I'm like, 'Okay, you know well I'm happy to help'."

However, the incident has also helped John to accomplish a goal of his own.

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Back on 1 August, he made it his goal to be made employee of the month at the Costco.

Now, thanks to his determination to return the money, he was rewarded with that honour, with his name holding pride of place up on a plaque outside the store.

But not everyone has John to return their lost money as one man found out.

On Tuesday (4 July), John Mark Barrientos was driving down the freeway on the Cebu South Coastal Road in the Philippines when a bucket load of cash flew out of his backpack.

While you'd think Barrientos was a little silly and left the back unzipped as he went for his morning cruise, in fact, his bag decided to break on him at the worst possible moment.

Speaking on a local radio station, Barrientos, who works for an e-wallet loading kiosk at a mall, said he only discovered that the zipper on his bag was broken when his money began flying out of it onto the freeway.

"I saw the money flying from the side mirror so I stopped to pick it up but then others were also collecting the money. Hopefully they return it," he said.