- Welcome back with Maria Bakalova, give it up.
(audience cheering)
Last month, an 80-year-old woman stopped by coffee shop
to treat herself and her granddaughter to a drink.
When she got home, she realized her wallet was gone.
We've all been there.
Well, I have.
The next day, however, she got a call from a stranger,
he'd found her wallet and wanted to return it.
Here's what we're calling a good neighbor.
(upbeat music)
♪ Good, good, ♪
♪ So good, ♪
♪ Good neighbor. ♪
♪ So good ♪
Here to explain is Evelyn,
her 12-year-old granddaughter,
McKayla and McKayla's mom, Vanessa.
What's up ladies?
(audience clapping)
- Hi Kelly. - Hi.
- Hi Kelly.
- Hi, three beautiful generations here.
Well, Evelyn, I'm gonna start with you,
we have surveillance video from the coffee shop,
can you talk us through what happened?
- Sure.
So here I am at the coffee shop
eight miles from my home,
my favorite place to shop and get my chai latte
and a Boba for McKayla.
And we can see in the video
that I put the wallet in my pocket,
but I haven't zipped it up.
- Oh, so it fell out.
So did you ever think you'd get it back?
I mean, I always think it's lost now.
- Well, I thought the universe is a kind place
and I believe in people,
and I didn't cancel my credit cards,
although everything in my life was in there,
I just thought I would wait a day or two
and see what would happen.
- Oh, wow.
You have a lot of belief in people, I like it.
2021 Evelyn, I like it.
Well, Maria, would you ever expect to get your wallet back
in that situation?
I've literally been in that situation
and I canceled, like, as soon as I got home,
going, well, that's gone.
(people chuckling)
- I actually, happened to me that, two years ago,
I left my phone on the bench
in front of my building that I was living in Bulgaria.
And two young boys actually called the last number
that I was calling, which was my mom.
And we get it like two hours later, immediately.
So I also believe in the good side of the people
and I think it's possible.
And it's incredible.
And it's beautiful.
It's the reason why we are here, I think.
- I love that.
I love that.
I just totally lost faith and didn't count
on anyone giving back and never got it back.
Well, I like your stories better.
Evelyn, you got to know the man who found it, right?
- Yes.
I got a call the next day, the very next evening.
And there was a man on the phone
and he said, "is this Evelyn topper?"
I said, "yes".
He says, "I found your wallet."
And I started screaming at the top of my lungs.
I was so delighted.
I said, it's a mitzvah, it's a mitzvah.
You found my wallet.
It's so fabulous.
Can I, how can we meet?
Can I get it back from you?
And he said, yes, I'm in a parking lot in my car
because I sleep in my car.
I'm homeless.
And I found the parking lot.
And I went to, I turned off my car
rolled down my window
and this man came, approach and he handed me my wallet.
And I was so grateful.
I was so incredibly blessed that this had happened.
- That's so wonderful. - [Evelyn] Wonderful way.
- It is wonderful McKayla.
I understand you wanted to help the gentlemen, right?
- Yeah.
So actually, before my Oma lost her wallet,
I was already thinking of
giving to a organization or a cause.
And while I was doing,
writing the eave height
for my drive birthday party with my mom.
And when I heard that my Oma had lost her wallet
and a homeless (indistinct) man had found it
I automatically said, Oh my gosh,
this is an amazing story.
I'm definitely giving to him.
And fast forward a couple of weeks, one week or two.
And it's my drive by birthday party.
So we're all masked.
And I have a little table up front of my driveway
with a basket for donations
and a picture of Sean.
And right next to that, there's little goodie bags
that has Hanukkah Gelt and Candy Canes
And I would give that people crossing by with tongs
(people laughing)
and we ended up raising $479.
And yeah.
(audience clapping)
- That's amazing what a beautiful heart you have
to do something like that for somebody else
on your birthday.
That says a lot about your character.
Vanessa, that was just the beginning, though, right?
Of what you all ended up doing for Sean.
- That's right.
It actually all started when I told my father
that Mckayla wanted to do this.
And he said, you know, this time of year,
this time in our lives,
I think people need to hear this story.
Do you mind if I call a local news reporter
and see if you might wanna cover her birthday?
I asked McKayla.
She said, sure.
And although I had thought about it
I hadn't talked to Sean yet about it.
So I gave him a call
and he was certainly happy
but a little taken aback and not so sure.
I said, Sean, this is not charity.
This is compassion.
So if you can receive it that way,
compassion is the highest form of love in my book.
- Wow.
- And to date, we are just about at $50,000.
And I've seen this story
in multiple languages
in newspapers, around the world.
- I love that you said it's compassion, not charity.
That's a beautiful thing.
Let's bring Sean into the conversation, everybody.
Hi, Sean, can you hear me?
(people clapping)
- I can Kelly, thank you.
- Well, it's lovely to have you on the show.
You got a big clap from Maria, I'm just saying.
(Kelly laughing)
(lady laughing)
- You're wonderful, Kelly.
Thank you very much.
- Oh, no.
It's so awesome to have you,
this story on here.
It's so beautiful.
And Sean, tell me how you found the wallet.
- Well, being homeless, sometimes you run into challenges
that, well, I was dumpster diving,
to tell you the truth.
I do that a lot.
I'll go, I'll look for things that people might need.
I was actually in the back of the dollar store
and I jumped in the dumpster
and I turned over
some garbage with a stick I was using
and there was a wallet.
And I looked at real quick
and I thought,
well, there's no money in there,
I'll just put her in my pocket.
And then later,
I opened it up when I got back to where I was staying,
underneath the freeway.
And I saw that there was 10 credit cards
and an ID and some business cards.
So I thought to myself,
you know, this, person's gotta want their wallet back.
And I don't care how hard it is,
trying living at this moment.
I'm gonna do the right thing
and I'm gonna call her
and I'm gonna give the wallet back.
(people clapping)
And I called her
(people clapping)
then I was, you know,
I get a little personal when I wanna talk about this.
Kelly, it's, so much good has come out of this.
I'm hearing that people around the world
are giving money in eight different languages, now.
What snowballed out of this?
What this whole family,
One act of kindness just for,
before the grace of God, you go,
you know, it's, I'm happy that people are
being aware of the homeless more
and doing good things.
And this has started off from
what some might think as a small thing,
it can be the biggest thing in the world.
- For somebody else, yeah.
- I'm very grateful.
(people clapping)
- Well, it's definitely a beautiful ending.
(indistinct chattering)
- I'm really most thankful that for the message
of a small act of kindness
can change someone's life.
I was sleeping out in the cold
and now I'm in a wonderful hotel room
because of them.
Eating good meals.
I'm taking nice hot shower.
I went down to the salvation army
and bought, you know,
(ladies chuckling)
(indistinct) close to that.
I'm starting to feel almost like myself again.
That would take a while
but there's probably much bigger things on the horizon
and helping other people, as well,
along the way is what I really wanna do.
(people clapping)
- Oh, that's beautiful, man.
Well, Vanessa, you wanted to say something
on behalf of your family, right?
- Absolutely.
If I can, you'll wipe away my tears,
first of all, Sean, you look amazing.
- I'm sorry.
(indistinct chattering)
I apologize.
(ladies laughing)
It's just me.
- I wanna tell you,
(ladies laughing)
Sean, what I wanna say to you is that
you've changed our lives
in this very short time.
You have a greater vision
the money that we've raised
as we've talked about.
'Cause we see each other just about every day is
in the short term
going to get you the place that you wanna live
and in the long-term
you'll have a bigger vision
and we're right there with you.
And we wake up in the morning with a bigger vision.
And thank you for that.
(people clapping)
very much
- Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you everyone.
Each and every one. - Yeah.
Absolutely.
Well, Maria, I mean everyone here has performed
such amazing mitzvahs
as Evelyn has said.
(Evelyn laughing)
Don't you think?
I think this is an amazing thing, right?
Just simple acts of kindness that can really
change the trajectory of someone's life.
- I think it's incredible.
I think it's beautiful and I don't wanna go emotional
because obviously it is emotional
and it's emotional the fact that
you're doing something small
just because you have feeling that you have to be good
you have to do the right decision.
And the universe is gonna come to you
with something bigger and better.
And most importantly,
you're finding people that are gonna support you
especially emotionally
with their love,
with their kindness.
And that's probably, I dunno, the biggest message
in the world.
To be supportive, to love each other.
We have this perfect example
of somebody showing love by returning
some small piece of something
(people clapping)
and finding a friend forever.
It's beautiful.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
Oh, that's awesome.
Well, thank you so much, everybody.