A cash-stuffed envelope was quickly returned to its owner, thanks to one Boerne man’s determination for some positive news and the help of social media.
BOERNE, Texas — Small business owner Shawn Davis said after a week of bleak news and strife, he stopped off at a Boerne convenience store to get himself a treat but what he got far exceeded his expectations.
“I just saw this piece of paper on the ground that had about a million tire marks over it, and I thought, ‘Hey, I’ll just throw that away real quick,'” said Davis. “Next thing you know it’s a pretty heavy piece of paper and I opened it up and there was just $20 bill after $20 bill and a cashier’s check in there.”
Having lost important items in his life, Davis said he wasn’t willing to wait to get the envelope back to its rightful owner.
He said he started rifling through the envelope looking for clues and found some notes that weren’t much help.
“I looked at the names on it and all I could really make out was an address and then a local business,” he said.
That clue, the Lil Explorers School of Boerne, helped cracked the case.
“I figured out this daycare is where it was supposed to go and so I figured, I’ll take it to the address in the morning, but in the meantime let’s see if we can let whoever needs to know, know,” Davis said. “That’s when Facebook came in and the Boerne Breaking News page was incredible!”
He says when he posted an image of his find, the internet did its thing.
“Once I posted the picture, families immediately started linking each other, tagging each other…It was 20 minutes or so before the owner was able to reach out,” Davis said. “If I found it at 9:00, it was back in her hands by about 10 that evening. So it moved fast. It moved really, really quickly.”
Davis said because discouraging news has dominated the headlines lately, he knew his neighbors would be eager to help.
“I think everybody was waiting for something positive to be a part of, honestly, so it was a team effort,” Davis said.
Davis, whose mobile automotive business keeps him on the road meeting new people all the time, said he is not at all surprised by the response.
He said when he and his wife wanted to leave the Seattle area, they scoured the country looking for the best place to move.
“We’ve lived in many places around the US and we didn’t want to move again for a very, very long time,” he said.
“We did our research about the area but it was definitely God who brought us here!” Davis said. “When we chose Boerne it was because we could tell that there’s a special community here and that people are always looking out for each other and to get to be a part of it and to see it like that I mean that kind of quick emergency response task force over a little envelope. It was really, really cool!”
Davis said of his extraordinary Friday night find, he was looking for a sign that things would be okay in the world and he found it. He said it is good advice: Look for the good. You’ll find it.