A businessman has been praised after returning €1,600 set aside for heating oil to an elderly woman who had left it in his shop by accident.
Pascal King, who runs two branches of Hangers dry cleaners in Limerick city centre and Castletroy Town Centre in Co Limerick, took delivery of the pensioner’s jacket.
As he does every time, he checked the pockets before the garment went in for cleaning.
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He explained: “I felt something bulky in the coat pocket. I thought it was a packet of tissues and it turned out to be a wallet.
“When I opened it, I found €1,600 inside of it.”
The pensioner had needed the money for her fuel payment and had been desperately hunting around her home for it.
Pascal said: “Everything is checked and double checked to make sure, not just for valuables, but for things that would damage a load.
Taking up the story, the woman - who asked not to be identified said: “A week ago, an elderly neighbour in her late 80s, asked me to drop in a coat to be dry cleaned into Castletroy Hangers.
“I got a phone call from Pascal and he said some money had been left in the pocket.
“I just said, sure grand, I’ll collect it next week.”
However, given the significant sum involved, Pascal asked her to come and collect it as soon as she could.
“I went to my neighbour and explained to her she had left money in her pocket. She was actually looking for it.
“She couldn’t find where it was and needed it for her home heating oil. So I collected it the following morning and gave it back to her."
She praised Pascal’s “honesty and goodness” and bought him a box of buns and tin of sweets to say thank you.
He said: “I was delighted to be able to give it back.”
Surprisingly, Pascal says he would regularly find large sums of money left by accident in pockets when they leave suits and other clothes in for dry cleaning.
He added: “I found €700 in a pair of trouser pockets not too long ago! And €400 in the lining of a suit jacket.”
One of the other common things he finds left in pockets is the best man’s speech from a wedding.
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