By A teenager’s quiet act of honesty outside a neighborhood convenience store has cascaded into a reward, a job offer, and an outpouring of community goodwill.
Seventeen-year-old Josh Pache had just arrived on his bicycle at Fox’s Pantry when he spotted a bundle of cash on the ground — Australian banknotes totaling $3,500. The money had fallen from the pocket of demolition business owner Daniel McKellar, who had stopped in for a quick coffee after dropping off scrap metal. Unaware of the loss, McKellar and his wife drove home, according to reports.
Pache, without hesitation, handed the money to a store employee.
Later, when McKellar called the shop hoping someone might have turned in the missing cash, he learned that a teenager had done exactly that. With only security-camera stills to go on, he posted the images on Instagram, asking the public to help identify the young man. The post quickly made its way to Pache’s mother, who reached out to McKellar.
The two soon met, and McKellar handed Pache a $1,000 cash reward. “It’s pretty rare to find the younger generation having a good moral compass and obviously knowing what to do, being the right thing to hand in the money,” McKellar told news.com.au.
During the meeting, McKellar learned that Pache was saving for a pickup truck. He offered the teen a laborer job at his demolition company and launched a GoFundMe page to help him buy the vehicle. The fundraiser has since pulled in more than $10,000 — just $1,100 shy of its goal.
McKellar also chose to donate the remaining $2,500 from the recovered bundle to a separate GoFundMe supporting brain surgery for a cancer patient, describing the money’s return as a stroke of luck. “I was never expecting the money back, I thought once I lost it … I was expecting someone to have taken it,” he said. “I definitely had no expectation to get it back, so in my mind it was already gone.”
What began as a simple moment of integrity has since become a community story — one marked by generosity, opportunity, and a teenager whose choice to do the right thing changed far more than one man’s afternoon.
