NY couple finds rusty safe in their backyard filled with money and jewelery

Since they moved into the house four years ago, Matthew and Maria Colonna-Emanuel of Staten Island, New York knew there was a rusty metal box behind some thick shrubs in their yard. They figured it was an old electrical or cable box and left it alone. 

Deer ate the shrubs and the couple hired a landscaper to clear the area out and replant it. The landscapers uncovered the rusty box, obviously an old safe. Using a pickax, the couple opened it.

Inside were $16,000 in soggy hundred dollar bills, plus diamonds, jade, and gold jewelry. While the smelly bills were peeled apart and laid out to dry, the couple found a document linking the box to their neighbors. 

Matthew knocked on the neighbor's door and asked if they'd ever been robbed. They said they had, back in 2011. NYPD confirmed that this neighbor reported theft of their home safe seven years ago. 

Matthew and Maria returned the $52,000 worth of treasure to their neighbors. When the press asked if they considered keeping the items, their answer was unequivocal. "It wasn't even a question," Maria said. "It wasn't ours."  

"The reward is karma," Matthew added. "Good karma."

Restaurant employee returns lost diamond, claims her action was 'common sense'

Anchorage Alaska has a new hero, Patricia Christophersen. This unassuming young woman was busing tables at Carlos Mexican Restaurant last week when she noticed a customer in panic. Rachel Saldana was frantically searching the restaurant for the diamond which had fallen out of her wedding ring. 

Rachel was with a group at the restaurant planning a fundraiser for the Alaska Miss Amazing Pageant, a pageant for young girls and teens with disabilities. Folks at the dinner joined restaurant staff in the search for the missing diamond. No luck. Rachel left broken-hearted later that night, sharing her cell phone number just in case the stone was found.

After closing, Patricia decided to take another look in the ladies room. She knew Rachel had taken her baby into the ladies room for a diaper change at one point, and Patricia had a hunch the diamond may have been jarred loose there. Sure enough, she found it behind the bathroom door. 

When Rachel received the call after 11pm, she was obviously surprised, but delighted. She and her husband gave Patricia a cash reward for her honesty.

Patricia's honesty is even more remarkable given her circumstances. She was involved in a multi-vehicle pile up a few weeks back and cannot afford to fix her car. She has no money for her own apartment and is currently living in a friend's paint store. 

But Patricia wouldn't have it any other way. She told interviewers that her decision to return the diamond was simple. She believes it was common sense to return something that did not belong to her.