ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701270110
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DUBLIN, CALIF.
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
THE ONLY PROBLEM is that the National Enquirer got the story wrong. The woman whose $8,000 Ramon Gonzalez turned in has been trying to thank him - and reward him - ever since.
It was the perfect tabloid tale - a true-blue, honest-as-the-day-is-long immigrant busboy with a young family finds $8,000, turns it in but gets nothing, not even a thank you, from the money's rightful owner.
Last week, a couple of outraged readers of the gossipy National Enquirer tried to fix the injustice, mailing $600 to the Dublin Police Department to pass on to the Good Samaritan, bemoaning, as one wrote, that the woman who lost the money wasn't ``publicly embarrassed'' by her bad manners.
On Friday, some San Francisco Bay Area media picked up the yarn.
But the 41-year-old woman who lost the dough says she did try to do the right thing - and still has the $500 reward waiting for her honest table-clearer, Ramon Gonzalez.
``I still have it put aside,'' the woman said Friday. She also said she'd given her thanks to the restaurant manager in Dublin to pass on to Spanish-speaking Gonzalez. ``I said it was wonderful what he'd done.''
The woman asked that her name be withheld because she fears criminals could target her for carrying cash from her family's small business. It was with such a bag of money that she, her mother and daughter stopped at the El Torito Restaurant for dinner Feb. 20, 1996.
When the bill arrived, she took the bag from her purse to root out her wallet, police said, but she absent-mindedly left the money bag on the seat next to her.
While clearing away dishes, Gonzalez picked it up, saw the thousands of dollars and ran to the parking lot to catch the woman - but was too late.
He handed the bag over to the manager, who gave it to the police.
The woman called the restaurant and then the police the next day, recovering her $3,722 in cash and $4,550 in travelers checks.
Gonzalez, back busing tables Friday at El Torito, where he's worked for seven years, said through an interpreter that he ``would not have felt right about keeping it.'' He admitted to being surprised the woman never thanked him but didn't feel bad about it.
In the weeks after his good deed, the City Council presented him with a certificate of appreciation.
The woman, who at times cried during an interview Friday, said she tried to give the $500 to one of the police officers, but he declined it because of department rules, she said. The officer told her Gonzalez would be nominated for a city award, and she could present it to him then.
The woman also called the restaurant twice the day the money was recovered, offering her thanks. She waited with the reward, figuring the awards were probably scheduled once a year and that she'd be notified. Now she plans to call police to make sure Gonzalez gets the reward.
In the meantime, Gonzalez has become a popular figure around the eatery.
``Everybody likes him,'' said Erika Lopez, who interpreted for Gonzalez. ``They congratulate him and say he's a good guy. Some people hand him money - $10, $20.''
Next month, Gonzalez said, he's taking his wife and daughter to Mexico for a vacation - financed, in part, by the kindness of strangers.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB