Penniless Man Returns $100 Find

GIBSONTON - Bill Green was riding his bicycle to church on Christmas Eve when temptation caused him to hit the brakes.

On the shoulder of U.S. 301 lay a cloth purse, dirty and worn, that looked like cars had run over it.

Inside the blue purse with paisley patterns, Green found a photograph of a baby, a Blockbuster video rental card and a crisp $100 bill folded in half. There was no identification.

The nearly penniless Green, who lives in a makeshift camp near the banks of the Palm River in Riverview, said he was conflicted.

"Let me tell you, the devil jumped right up on my shoulder," Green, 62, said. He thought "the Lord was putting a blessing on me. But by the time I got to church, I done figured out I had to return it."

He sought help from Mike and Sue Sutko, founders of the Daystar Faith Center mission he goes to in Gibsonton, to find the owner.

It took two months, but by using the video rental card's membership number and calling local Blockbuster stores, Sue Sutko discovered the owner was 13-year-old Amanda Zapico of Riverview.

On Thursday, Green and the seventh-grader met for the first time at the Daystar Center on Marilla Avenue. After the initial pleasantries, Green passed the purse to Amanda, who was color-coordinated in pink and white for Valentine's Day.

Amanda took the purse she thought she would never see again and pulled out the $100 bill, which had been a Christmas present from her uncle.

"I want you to have this," she told Green, handing him the money.

Surprised, he refused - but the longer he held his hands in front of him and the stronger he shook his head to say no, the more Amanda pressed on. Finally, Green accepted the girl's generosity.

"I think I'm going to cry," he said. "I'll tell you, I won't forget this Valentine's Day."

Amanda, who was going to shop with the $100, said she gave it back to Green because she was touched by the kindness he showed in wanting to return it. The money could now help other people, too, she said.

"It makes me feel happy," Amanda, who is a student at the LLT Academy charter school in Tampa, said. "It feels really good."

Cindy Zapico, her mother, said she instills in her children volunteerism and community service. The Sutkos said those are the qualities they also teach the more than 400 clients of the Daystar Center, which is affiliated with the Diocese of St. Petersburg and has other missions in Dade City and Pinellas County.

Daystar's Gibsonton mission serves about 50 lunches to homeless people each day, Sue Sutko said. The center assists its clients with educational, employment and nutrition needs, she said. Through the center, clients such as Green are able to apply for food stamps and Social Security benefits, Sutko said.

Before Amanda and her mother left the center on Thursday, Green asked the girl one more question.

"How in the world did it get lost there?" he asked.

Amanda admitted that she could get "rather lackadaisical" with her belongings and searched her house for the money for about a month. She said she was shocked when Sue Sutko called her to say Green found her purse and was even more taken aback when she was told he wanted to return it.

Amanda said she is thrilled to get her purse, rental card and photograph of her baby cousin, Alyssa, back.

Green said he is going to use a large portion of the $100 to buy food and cook a Southern-style meal for the Sutkos and the Daystar clients.

"Well, see? The Lord did want me to have it," Green said. "But he wanted me to have it the right way."