Yahoo News Homeless man reunites woman with lost handbag after spending two days searching for her
A homeless man wandered the streets of Bolton for two days trying to reunite a lost handbag with its owner.
Daisy Owen had lost her bag, which contained her purse, keys and £500 iPhone 6s Plus, during a night out in the city centre.
Paul Calderbank, who sleeps in a hostel, later discovered the bag in the Bradshawgate area of the city and spent the next few days trying to find someone who knew Miss Owen.
Eventually he bumped into one of her old school friends, who contacted Miss Owen on Facebook.
The 20-year-old told the Bolton News: “I tried ringing my phone and just thought it was gone. Then I got a message from nowhere from someone I went to school with.
“They said there is a homeless man going round Bolton and he is looking for you and he is determined to find you to give you your bag.”
Paul had been so afraid people would assume he had stolen the bag he penned a note explaining what he was doing and that he was an “honest person”.
When Miss Owen, from Breightmet, near Bolton, found Paul he was already walking towards her address to deliver her bag.
Miss Owen added: “He was over the moon. I didn’t think that I was going to get it back. He had gone to all this effort. When I found him he was walking to my address that was on my provisional.”
In his hand-written note, Paul explained why he had gone to such lengths to return the handbag.
Paul's note
To the owner of the handbag I found tonight and purse, also mobile phone, [I] tried to turn the phone on to find out the name of the girl so I could return. [I] did not want to tell anyone in town because they would of tried to blag me saying it's one of [their] friends, can't trust anyone in town and [I] was worried in case anybody thought I was keeping it.
I don't steal. I am a honest man now and have been for a number of years.
Now I am relieved that I made it back to the hostel with the girl's belongings, so in the morning I can do some investigations to locate the true owner of the handbag and other belongings inside [the] bag. Because this is the second handbag I've found now on Bradshawgate on a weekend in the space of approximately around three months and tomorrow I want to locate the true owner and personally hand her all her belongings back.
Because I am an honest person now, because to me it feels so good to do the right thing and there is money in [the] purse and I have not taken a penny.
Miss Owen was so moved by Paul’s actions she started a GoFundMe to raise money to give him a deposit for a flat and some warm food.
The page has already raised over £1,200, largely from small donations of £5 and £10. You can donate to the fund here.
