One Saturday, the police buzzed our apartment. They asked about a silver Toyota parked outside—our car was a blue Honda. The plates? Registered to our address.
They checked our security footage and found a hoodie-wearing figure placing a bag in our recycling bin. Inside: six envelopes of $100 bills. $60,000.
It turned out the money was stolen in a pawn shop robbery. The suspect? Carlos Ramirez—the previous owner of our house. He’d been moving the cash around town.
When the police finally caught him, he was terminally ill. He confessed and made a final request: half the money for victims of violent crime, the other half for us—for our honesty and kindness.
Months later, we received $120,000. We donated some, saved some, and bought a cabin.
A crime, a recycling bin, and one man’s last act of redemption changed our lives forever.
