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c economist suntribune thursday dec 19 2002 3 how honest are you york region the wallet is cheap vinyl with a picture of a horsie on the front inside is a photo graph of a child clippings stickers and doodads that would be treasured by a youngster and about 10 cash if you found that lying around you would return it wouldnt you in the final instalment of the york region newspaper groups test of character we decided to find out we already tested your toler ance for common forms of annoying behaviour and your willingness to help a stranger in trouble this time out we tested whether residents are honest enough to turn in a missing wallet we scattered our decoys in pub lic places around the region of six wallets dropped four were returned two of them with all the cash in our totally unscientific test stouffville and richmond hill aced the honesty test the wallets were returned within an hour cash intact in newmarket and vaughan there seems to be a finders fee the wallets were turned in but the cash was removed the other two wal lets having been dropped in aurora and markham last week are still out there somewhere cash taken from wallet by linda johnson staff writer lose your wallet in richmond hill or thornhill and youre likely to get it back but as for recov ering your cash that depends at hillcrest mall a keeneyed richmond hill shopper spotted the brown wallet quickly within an hour of being left at a seat in the malls food court it was gone the next day its fate still uncer tain i dropped in at the customer care desk after a quick call to the security office the customer repre sentative happily told me a wallet had indeed been found the guard handed me the wallet to check and the two 5 bills were still there but at the promenade in thornhill the finder had other ideas the wallet was left on a bench in front of a bank and clearly not everyone who goes there in search of money has a bank card the good news was the wallet was turned in complete with the small change in its coin section but t he serious money was gone at least we recovered the picture two of the wallets dropped by our staff writers during the latest in our series of character tests were returned with money intact shopper quick to report find by simone joseph staff writer it is 120 pm on a busy pre- christmas shopping day at newmarkets upper canada mall i place a wallet with the horse on a ledge bordering potted plants and scurry away to a nearby bench to watch peoples reaction how long will it take for someone to rescue the wallet i wonder a woman walks by with a friend points to the wallet and says some thing i cannot hear but ambles on another woman strolls by pushing a baby carriage looks at the wallet and keeps walking finally about two minutes later a woman with a blond ponytail picks up the wallet and walks away with it unzipping it and looking inside i drop another wallet outside the entrance of a kfc on yonge street in aurora then i scuttle inside to watch people react a few minutes later two men who look to be in their early 20s leave the restaurant one stoops picks up the wallet and walks away by the time i get back to the office my editor tracy kibble received a message about a wallet dropped in newmarket someone placed it on the counter of one of upper canada malls information booths and left when ms kibble asked whether the wallet still had money in it the security guard said the 10 was gone but the small change was still there she asked the security officer if the wallet chould be placed in a location where people would find it so we could continue our experi ment when ms kibble spoke to mall security later they said the wallet had been brought back sev eral times finally i get a call from georgina hinksman of orangeville she spotted the wallet on a benchand thought to herself what if somebodys christmas shopping money is in here she later said she felt sympathy for the wallet owner she would have been devastated if it had been her wallet that was lost it has been four days since i dropped the wallet in aurora and still no phone call if that wallet had really belonged to a child there would be one sad kid out there wallet yet to be returned by hannelore volpe staff writer a lost childrens wallet stayed on a suburban stouffville street for less than 15 minutes before its owner was called a wallet lost in markham on the same day is still at large the stouffville wallet was left containing a childs pic ture 8 in cash a small necklace and the owners phone number by economist suntribune editor jim mason near the intersection of stoufferihd millard streets on friday another similarly appointed childs wallet was left the same day in the parking lot of the honey bee donutsfathers steakhouse and pub plaza at mccowan road and hwy 7 in markham noone has ii called to say they found that wallekf the wallets were dropped as one of the character tests being carried out by the york region newspaper group to test the honesty of resi dents in tile regions municipalities the stouffville good samaritans were a fouryearoldgirl and her dad who were on their morning walk to summitview public school dad look said isabelle demelo a junior kindergarten student as she spotted the wallet in front of the neighbour hoods mailboxes i picked it up and saw there was 8 inside said joe demelo who called the number in the wallet actually the stouffville sun and tribune office mr demelo and his wife camilla have been teaching isabelle not to take things that dont belong to her ironically mrs demelo lost a wallet a few months ago and had it returned shortly after realizing it was gone it dropped to the ground as she was getting into her car in front of an apartment building the incident was spotted by a resident of the apartment who immediately went downstairs to retrieve it and give mrs demelo a call he contacted us right away mr demelo said tfksgsswsjas l- v f 7 r rpv w- xrt kiraejbejkjs soio- 8 25 jclofced 269 5 jan 1 closed tyjams 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