North Texas fifth grader finds bag of cash, turns it in

A North Texas fifth grader found thousands of dollars in cash and checks and police are calling him a role model after he did the right thing.

Blake Leonard and his dad were out shopping for his 11th birthday when Blake saw a bag filled with money in a Best Buy parking lot in Flower Mound.

Inside that bag?

“A lot of hundreds and twenties,” Blake said.

The bank bag was filled with $2,000 in cash along with thousands more in checks. It wound up in the hands of Blake, who says he never once thought of keeping the money.

“No, because that's stealing,” Blake said.

Police say when they located the owner of the money, she was in tears. She did not want her identity revealed for fear of losing her job. The money belonged to a youth sports team.

The woman who lost it thinks her child in the car accidentally kicked the bag out of her car.

"All the credit goes to Michael the dad for teaching Blake the difference between right and wrong,” said Flower Mound PD Capt. Wess Griffin. “This very easily could have gone a different way in this instance. We're able to have a happy ending thanks to Blake."

The Flower Mound police chief wants to recognize Blake at an upcoming city council meeting. 

Police say even if you find cash with no identifying information it's always good to turn it in to police in case someone calls looking for it, which they say happens 50 percent of the time.