A good deed goes a long way

"A good deed really does go along way," said Isaiha Ortivez, he and his cousin Nicholas Balandran turned in a wallet they found laying on the sidewalk Wednesday.

Balandran said they were playing at the Central Elementary playground when they spotted the wallet near a house located close to the school.

"We spotted it and picked it up," Balandran said. "We looked in it to see if we knew the person but closed it right away because it would be rude to look through it."

The boys said after finding the wallet they rode their bikes to the police station to turn it in.

At the time, the boys knew the wallet contained money but they didn't know the wallet contained a large amount of money.

"We knew it had money in it, but we didn't know it had $700 in it. It wouldn't have changed anything if we did," Ortivez said.

At the police station, Ortivez said the officer told them they did a good job and took their parents names and numbers.

"I turned the wallet in because we thought it was not right taking it, he (the owner of the wallet) might have kids or bills. But mostly for me, I did it for my little brother who looks up to me," Ortivez said.

Balandran agreed with Ortivez saying, "my dad always says even if no one sees it, God does."

"We didn't meet the man the wallet belongs to but we are glad he got it back," Ortivez said.

The two cousins live in Sidney and attend West Elementary. Ortivez is in sixth grade and lives with his mother, Julia Thomas and Balandran is in fifth grade and lives with his father, Freddy Balandran.

Both boys were surprised at the outpour of congratulations they received from the Sidney Police Department and West Elementary.

"We got a lot of 'good jobs' and high fives, and a certificate with a free Runza meal," Balandran said.

In the morning at West, students gather in the gym for morning announcements. Thursday morning Balandran and Ortivez were presented with the certificates and recognized for their efforts by Officer Hoffrock and Officer Woodis.