What would YOU do if you found $1,600?

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published May 01, 2008

Honesty paid off for Olympia High School junior Joel Nightingale on Wednesday.

Olympia police gave Nightingale, 17, the sixteen $100 bills that he found in the parking lot of Olympia High School two months ago.

At the time, Nightingale handed the money to a teacher, who turned it in to the police.

"I didn't think about it too much," Nightingale said. "I thought people are probably missing that money."

Nightingale said he saw the paper-clipped stack of bills in a parking space near the school gym as he parked his car in the morning.

He gave the bills to his choir teacher, Dan Schwartz, who turned the bills in to authorities, Nightingale said.

Olympia High principal Matt Grant commended Nightingale.

"He turned it in without hesitation," Grant said.

Nightingale's mom, Celia, described her son as having a "good track record" for honesty. He's been in Boy Scouts, on the school varsity soccer team and is a college-bound, academically minded student.

"My husband and I were real proud that he did the right thing," she said.

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.