Arizona homeless man gets $3K reward for returning bag of cash

A homeless man who made headlines earlier this month for returning a backpack he found at a Light Rail station that contained thousands of dollars in cash has received a reward for the same large amount of money he returned.

According to the shelter at which Tempe man Dave Tally has lived for the past four years, gifts and donations have been filtering in from all over the US after news of Tally’s return of the $3,300 cash was picked up across the country. But the largest gift given Tally so far has been from the people who produce truTV and Forensic Files, in the form of a check for $3,300.

Tally, who fell on hard times after “a host of bad choices” and an “extreme DUI,” became emotional when presented with the check:

“The effects (the donation is) having on my life right now is overwhelming — the fact that I’m going to have a second chance to start my life up,” said Tally. “This is the closing chapter on this segment of my life. Thank you.”

Tally plans to stay at the shelter, where he serves as “lead monitor” and helps enforce order, for the time being. When he found the backpack belonging to a student, he says he was briefly tempted to keep some of the money, but ultimately was morally unable to:

“I won’t lie. I did think about buying a couple of things for me, but it didn’t take very long to come to the realization that I didn’t earn that money. It wasn’t mine,” Tally said.

[KPHO via Fark]