Kennewick woman loses, regains money saved to buy car

KENNEWICK — A 69-year-old Kennewick woman was amazed and grateful after a Hallmark shop employee found and returned to her $3,500 in cash she’d saved for a year in hopes of buying a car.

KNDU-TV reported that Judy Johnson visited a credit union Tuesday to withdraw the money. She says she later stopped at Goodwill to buy a purse, then sat down on a bench to put her things in the purse. She said the cash envelope apparently slipped out.

The next day she got a call from the Hallmark manager, saying one of his employees found the envelope and turned it in. The Hallmark employees had called the credit union in an effort to learn who dropped the envelope.

The employee was Alisha Bryans, who said she once lost a purse containing money to buy Christmas presents — and an honest person turned that in.

Bryans said Johnson “gave me a huge hug. She started crying.”