THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502030201
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Town Talk
SOURCE: Eric Feber
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
If you think there are no honest people left in the world, talk to Rose B. Caldeyro.
Caldeyro, a customer service representative for NationsBank on Battlefield Boulevard, has learned that there are still people who do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do.
Caldeyro's fiance, Herman Seals of Portsmouth, couldn't find his wallet one day in early January. Thinking he had left it somewhere else, he searched and searched, but to no avail.
``He was carefree about it because he just thought he left it at his locker at work, but when he couldn't find it there the next day, he panicked,'' Caldeyro explained. ``When we couldn't find it Friday, we figured it was lost.''
Trying to retrace his steps, Seals and Caldeyro searched all the places he had visited that Thursday, including the Farm Fresh supermarket on South Battlefield. Still no wallet.
``We thought it was gone - lost,'' Caldeyro said.
On Monday morning, Caldeyro received a call at her office.
``This man asked me if I knew a Herman Seals,'' she said. ``When I told him, `Yes, he's my fiance,' he said, `Good! I found his wallet.' I was ecstatic. Then my next question was `Where did you find it?' ''
The man said he found the wayward wallet lying on the Farm Fresh parking lot pavement. He explained to Caldeyro that he spent all weekend calling phone numbers found in Seals' wallet.
``He told me he found my number on one of my business cards my fiance keeps in his wallet,'' she said. ``He must have made a lot of calls because he had a lot of business cards. He then offered to bring the wallet by my office but later couldn't because his wife had to use the car.''
Caldeyro quickly phoned Seals with the good news.
``Naturally he was happy,'' she said. ``He told me, `You know, not too many people do that anymore.' ''
The wallet still had all of its contents, including all of Seals' credit cards and $11 in cash.
``It still contained all his military IDs, out-of-state driver's license, all the money and other important papers and ID's,'' she said.
Caldeyro said because of the man's honesty and the fact he even offered to deliver the missing item, she and Seals wanted to reward him for his good deed.
But the Good Samaritan wanted nothing in return.
``He said he wanted no reward, only for someone to do the same for him,'' she said. ``When my fiance dropped by his home to pick up the wallet he again offered him some reward, and he refused again.''
Coming up with an offer even this Good Samaritan couldn't refuse, Caldeyro and Seals hit upon a good idea.
``We knew his address, so we sent him a money order in his name,'' she said.
Caldeyro said this little incident reaffirmed her faith in her fellow man. In fact, she began to tell the tale at work.
``When I hear about a story or incident that makes people feel better, I tell it to my customers,'' Caldeyro said. ``I wanted to tell it to prove that there's still honest people out there, and that makes everybody feel good.''
She offered her fiance a bit of advice.
``I told him to be more careful,'' she said. ``Not everybody is that honest and kind.'' by CNB