Homeless Man Turns in Bag of $40,000+, Prevents Massive TripFail

by Rob Annis on

Talk about a Good Samaritan.

Although reportedly homeless and needing money, an unidentified Boston man turned over a backpack filled with more than $40,000 in cash and travelers checks this weekend. After finding the bag near the South Bay Mall, the man flagged down a passing police officer to give him the backpack.

A Chinese national had reported the bag, which also contained his passport and other identifying papers, missing earlier in the day at a Best Buy store and later claimed it from police. There’s no word yet if the unnamed do-gooder was offered a reward.

It’s a safe bet the man’s trip was saved by this act of honesty and kindness. Has your vacation to a foreign country ever been saved with the help of a total stranger?

Utrecht tour guided by the homeless

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you really want to learn what happens on the streets of a city, you’re best off talking to someone who’s lived there. In the Dutch city of Utrecht, five people are about to become tour guides … five people who used to be homeless. Their training from the tourism bureau will help them with the more formal aspects of their duties, but it’s the time they lived in the streets that will make their perspectives interesting.

The tours, called “Utrecht Underground,” will begin on September 13, 2009. They’ll be 75 minutes long and cost a mere €5. In addition to the usual sights of the city, guests will get to see where their guides “used to sleep or do drugs.”