Youngsters find and return wallet
A wallet with R50, that no other R50 could ever replace, found its way back to its owner recently.
Little did the “finders”, a group of youngsters, know how much the wallet’s contents meant to the owner, or how bad an ordeal she underwent the day it was taken from her.
Sisters Rachel and Wendy Maake, from Yeoville, were with friends Thabile Khubeka, Felicia Mokoena and Ivan Hove at Rhodes Park on July 12.
“I was sitting by the lake and looking at the ducks. I saw what looked like a wallet. I fished it out with a stick and realised that it actually was a wallet. There was an identity document, bank cards and R50 in the wallet,” said Rachel, an Athlone Girls High School pupil.
The friends discussed what was found and Rachel decided to take the wallet home to show her father.
She said she was hoping to find the owner.
“If my wallet went missing and someone found it, I would like them to do the same. I had to find the owner of the wallet,” said Rachel.
When her father, Mr Jack Maake, searched the wallet he found a business card. He called the number on the card.
It was the daughter of the woman whose wallet was found.
Mr Maake, who works at Sacred Heart College, arranged to meet with the owner of the wallet to return her belongings.
The family met Ms Patsy Dean-Smith on July 17. Ms Dean-Smith was ecstatic.
The retired nursing sister told the family and the EXPRESS how overjoyed she was.
“I am going to reward these children. This means so much to me,” she said.
Ms Patsy Dean-Smith, a Kensington resident, explained the ordeal she underwent on July 1, when her wallet was taken from her.
She said she was walking close to Rhodes Park on the Langermann Drive side when she was approached by a criminal.
She was stabbed several times with a knife and her handbag was taken.
“I lay on the pavement for about an hour and a half. Motorists passed me and did not help,” she said.
Ms Dean-Smith, who moved to Kensington the day before the incident, said it was a man who she only knows as Ronald who came to her rescue.
“What a wonderful man. I told him who to contact in my family and he did. He stayed with me until an ambulance arrived. A member from No Crime also came to help,” said Ms Dean-Smith.
She was treated in hospital and soon discharged.
“I am thankful to everyone who helped me that day and to the children who found and returned my wallet. I am an extremely spiritual person. The incident was terrible and not having my wallet with my identity document made life difficult. And oh this R50,” she said.
While talking to the EXPRESS Ms Dean-Smith rolled the money around as if it had a deeper meaning. She then said it was the R50 found in her son’s wallet two years ago. “My son Jason died two years ago. I found this money of his and held on to it ever since,” she said.
Rachel and her sister were thrilled to see the smile on Ms Dean-Smith’s face. Their father could not have been any more prouder.
“I have always taught them to do the right thing. If something is not yours, do not take it. It is something my parents taught me and I am proud my children and their friends did the right thing,” said Mr Maake.
Mr John Woodroof, an Observatory resident who knows Ivan said, “These children could have pocketed the money but they did not. This is testimony that there are great youngsters out there. What they did is fantastic,” he said.
The man who helped Ms Dean-Smith on the day is Mr Ronald Ncube, a delivery driver for Nandos in Bruma.
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