BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Joe Hodges calls himself one of the unluckiest people alive.
“Never found a dime,” Hodges said.
But one rainy September morning, Lady Luck laid an envelope just feet away from his door.
“I was just walking down the street and happened to look down and the money was in the water,” said Hodges, a Bloomfield Township resident.
Inside the envelope was $700 that would have instantly made anyone’s day However, Hodges didn’t want the mistake to ruin someone else’s.
“I figured, well must belong to somebody and I took it up to the police station,” he said.
Six months passed and nothing. But just this week, rather than becoming $700 richer, Hodges walked away with $300 less in his pockets.
“He immediately, when we returned the money to him, he took it, ‘Donate this to the fund and hold on, here’s an additional three, we’ll make it an even $1,000,’” said Lt. Paul Schwab, with the Bloomfield Township police department.
Now all that money is going toward helping an aspiring officer at Oakland Police academy with a scholarship in the name of Gary Davis -- an officer killed in the line of duty 16 years ago.
“He was a great police officer. Everybody that heard about the story here, we all said, we have no doubt Gary was looking down on this guy. You just don’t come across people like that everyday,” Schwab said.
“Giving back is the best thing that you can do,” Hodges said.
Hodges has family ties to several police officers, including a few who have worked in the city of Detroit.
We also want to add that he didn’t contact us for any recognition in doing this deed -- he just wanted to be a good person.