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Teen finds purse filled with $10,000 in cash, turns it in to police

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A California teen stumbled upon more money than he'd ever seen in his life, and he did the right thing.

"I feel if everyone did the right thing, the world would be a better place," Rhami Zeini told KEYT.

On his way home from school, the 16-year-old noticed a black purse in the middle of the road. "Pulled over, went to the road, there's nobody around, picked up the purse, I'm trying to find whose it was," said Zeini. "Tried to find any identification. Is there a phone number I can call them return the purse?"

Instead, the high school junior found thousands of dollars in cash in the purse.

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"We have seen people do the right thing many times before. We had purses that of been dropped with large amounts of cash in them, but I think this one was the first time that we had a purse with $10,000 in it," said Kelly Hoover of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.

After consulting with his parents, the teen brought the precious cargo to the police. "To me I figured this is the right thing to do. If I take it and find whose purse it was,  because if the roles were reversed, and I lost something with a significant sum of money, I know I would want it back for sure," said Zeini.

The purse and cash have since been reunited with their rightful owner, who's said to be very grateful. "This woman was going on a hike and she said she probably left it on the roof of her car and drove away and didn't realize it," said Hoover.

As a reward, the woman gave Zeini $100. "Just makes you feel good about humanity and that there are people out there that will do the right thing," said Hoover.

CNN/KEYT

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