12-Year-Old’s Values Are Put to Test After Finding $1,000

Twelve-year-old Ryan Freimann spent a long weekend dreaming of at least a dozen things to do with the $1,000 he found Friday in an Orange shopping center parking lot. For example, there’s that sports car he’s saving for and hoping to buy when he turns 16.

But on Monday the Newport Beach sixth-grader handed the 10 $100 bills over to their rightful owner.

“It took some thought,” the Andersen Elementary School student said. “But I knew it was the right thing to do.”

On Friday afternoon, after Ryan, his mother and twin sisters stopped at a shopping center near Orange Avenue and Prospect Street, Ryan noticed a bulky white envelope on the pavement near the family car.

“It was face up with a clear opening so I could see at least one $100 bill,” Ryan said. “I picked it up and thought, ‘Wow!’ and then gave it to my mom.” Kerry Freimann, in turn, took the envelope, which also included a Santa Ana Unified School District payroll stub, to her husband, Dave, who put the fate of the money back in Ryan’s hands.

“I wanted him to make the decision,” Dave Freimann said. “I wanted to give him a test to see if the values we’ve tried to instill in him had gotten through.”

They had. Ryan decided that his family should first try to contact the owner, but if they were unable to do so, he’d get to keep the funds.

“I did want the person who lost it to get it back,” the boy said. “But there was a part of me that sort of hoped we couldn’t find the person. It was a long weekend waiting to find out.”

On Monday morning, Ryan’s father contacted the Santa Ana school district, which reached Michele Charlebois, a fifth-grade teacher at Garfield Elementary School.

“She was ecstatic,” Dave Freimann said. “She couldn’t believe anyone would return that kind of money.”

After receiving the money at the Freimann home Monday afternoon, Charlebois rewarded Ryan with an undisclosed sum of money for his honesty.

“I’d just completed teaching my kids lessons on honesty and good will,” Charlebois said. “It’s ironic that this would happen in the same week. I have to thank his parents for raising such a great kid.”

Ryan, who is running for student body president at his school this year, admitted that when he told a few of his classmates of his good deed, they were stunned by his honesty.

“But I told them if they were in the same situation and knew who the money belonged to, they wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if they kept it,” Ryan said.