Micah Speir, a garbageman in Seattle, found a bank bag filled with $12,000 in checks and went out of his way to return them, a kindness that earned him a hero's designation at a local elementary school depending on the money for class supplies and arts programs.
Speir, who told
KOMO he loves his job working for Waste Management, said he noticed the bag when he was picking up trash on his route.
"I noticed there was scattered trash and that's what I was going to pick up," Speir told the station. "And lo and behold, it was something more than scattered trash."
He looked in the bag and saw the checks were made out to Lawson Elementary School. He called the school and spoke with Principal Dorian Manza, who was excited to get the checks back.
On its
website, the school called Speir a "hero."
"We were fortunate enough to have one of the waste management crews recover not only the bag, but the checks that were scattered as well," the website said. "They located the checks and contacted the office. Often times we don’t think much of the crews that do jobs we rarely see, however when someone goes the extra mile they should be appreciated. So a very BIG thank you Micah, the amazing employee of King County Waste Management! You are our hero!"
Manza told KOMO he was grateful for Speir's willingness to go the extra mile.
"I told him, 'I know you have a tough job, you went above and beyond. I tried to give him a tip with my own money but he said, 'No sir, I can't do that. I won't do that,'" Manza said.
The checks were from a fundraiser at the school during October and were to pay for everything from schools supplies to arts programs, KOMO reported. The checks were inadvertently thrown away, and Speir's helpfulness saved the school from trying to contact everyone who had written a check to try to recoup the money.
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