Posted on: Monday, September 3, 2001

Editorial
Lottery schmottery: Here's real news

Everyone dreams of coming into a financial windfall. That helped drive interest in the mega-lottery Powerball story.

But our favorite story along those lines wasn't about the Powerball.

No, it was the tale of Los Angeles dishwasher Franco Gonzales, the 22-year-old Los Angeles dishwasher who stumbled across a bag containing $203,000 in cash that fell from an armored truck.

Gonzales, an undocumented worker from Mexico, wrestled mightily with his conscience but in the end decided the right thing to do was to return the money intact.

It was a good move, not only for the integrity it showed but for the honesty he demonstrated in saying it wasn't easy to turn the money back — it was simply the right thing to do.

There's a good chance Gonzales will get a $25,000 reward for returning the money. He would use the money to return to his home state of Hidalgo and build a home for himself and his family.

That's the kind of good-luck story we need to hear more often.