Not only is this another example of homeless men going out of their way to return valuable belongings to the owners, it is also shines a spotlight on a generous four-diamond hotel that rewarded one such man in a big way for his good deed.
Joel Hartman was digging through a dumpster, hoping to find someone’s leftover food. Instead, he found a French woman’s wallet. Inside was her identification and credit card.
Hartman, 36, said he could’ve kept it. But he didn’t.
He thought such a loss would have been too hard on a foreign traveller.
He went to four hotels until he succeeded in finding the one where the wallet’s owner was staying.
That was three weeks before Thanksgiving.
Two weeks later, the luxurious Omni Hotel at CNN Center finally located Hartman and invited him to stay at their hotel for five nights through Thanksgiving. They planned to feed him and give him new clothes.
On top of that, they gave him $500 in cash “for doing the right thing”.
UPDATE: (Provided by Dianne Smith Byrd as seen on the Atlanta news) The story gets better from there. His stepmother had been looking for him for years and, seeing this on TV, has reunited with him, along with his two brothers who did not know where he was or that he was homeless. In addition, a local salon cut & styled his hair and beard.
(WATCH the video below and READ MORE in the Atlanta Journal Constitution)