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A construction worker named Luiz Salazar found a pouch with 30 thousand dollars on May 3, equivalent to almost R$ 150 thousand, inside the bathroom of a convenience store in Riviera Beach, Florida. Instead of keeping the money, the worker spent days looking for the owner until security cameras and a police report allowed identification. Upon returning the pouch, Salazar received a hug and saw the owner cry with relief. “It’s not my money to take. I wasn’t raised like that,” said the worker.
A construction worker did what many consider unthinkable: found R$ 150 thousand in cash inside a forgotten pouch in a public bathroom and dedicated entire days to finding the owner to return every cent. Luiz Salazar, who works in construction in Riviera Beach, Florida, found the pouch hanging on the handrail of a stall in the bathroom of a convenience store. Upon opening it to look for any document that identified the owner, the worker was astonished by what he saw: several bundles of money totaling 30 thousand dollars.
The worker’s first reaction was to ask in the store itself if anyone had forgotten the pouch, but no one could inform him. Salazar then began a search that would last days, carrying the money with him and trying to locate who had lost it. Luckily, the owner had reported the case to the Riviera Beach police, and the security camera footage identified the worker as the last person to use the bathroom before the pouch disappeared. Salazar’s honesty was evident when, as soon as he was contacted, he rushed to the police station to return the pouch intact.
The moment the worker returned the R$ 150 thousand
The meeting between Luiz Salazar and the owner of the money took place at the Riviera Beach police station. The worker handed over the pouch with the full 30 thousand dollars and simply said: “It’s yours.” The owner, who preferred not to be publicly identified, began to cry and hugged Salazar in a scene that the present officers described as moving.
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The owner of the money told the local press that he was “quite surprised that someone had done this” and added: “Think about it. It’s life-changing money. People would kill for that amount.” For a construction worker earning by the day, 30 thousand dollars represent months of salary. The decision to return it was not based on calculation, but on principle.
The worker’s phrase that went viral on social media
When asked why he didn’t keep the money, Salazar replied with a phrase that spread across American social media and reached Brazil: “It’s not my money to take. I wasn’t raised that way.” The simplicity of the response contrasts with the magnitude of the gesture and the amount involved.
The worker showed no regret, hesitation, or expectation of financial reward at any time. Salazar’s stance generated a wave of positive comments on social media, with thousands of people praising the honesty of a construction worker who refused an amount capable of immediately changing his financial life.
The case was reported by WPBF 25, an ABC affiliate in Florida, and replicated by positive news outlets in the United States and Brazil.
What the case says about honesty in times of crisis
The story of Luiz Salazar adds to a series of recent cases of honesty that go viral on social media. In Brazil, garbage collectors returned a backpack with R$ 30,000, a popcorn vendor returned a Pix of R$ 270 before the customer even noticed the mistake, and a mechanic who found a stone stuck in the wheel refused to charge for the diagnosis.
The pattern that unites these cases is the profile of the protagonists: workers in manual professions who choose honesty even when no one is watching.
The construction worker who found the pouch with R$ 150,000 did not know there were security cameras in the bathroom. He did not know the owner had filed a police report. He did not know he would be identified.
The decision to look for the owner of the pouch was made before any possibility of being discovered, which makes Salazar’s gesture even more significant.
Would you return R$ 150,000 found in a bathroom? What impresses you most about this story: the amount of money, the days spent searching for the owner, or the phrase “I wasn’t raised like that”? Tell us in the comments.
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