Park Cities Pet Sitter’s Sheila Hornsby Finds a Vintage $1000 Bill While Walking a Client’s Dog in the Uptown Area of Dallas
Dallas, Texas (PRWEB) August 07, 2014 -- Sheila Hornsby has worked in the Uptown area of Dallas for Park Cities Pet Sitter for nearly five years. Many of the pets she cares for reside in the high rises that dot the Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, and McKinney Avenue streets. On the evening of Monday, July 28th, she was taking a dog from the 1900 McKinney Avenue building outside for a walk, cutting through the parking garage in the back of the building to get outside. Ms. Hornsby noticed something on the ground at the edge of the parking garage where she was walking, and initially stepped over it. As she glanced back at the item on the ground, she looked more closely and saw that what she stepped over looked like a $1000 bill, enclosed in a plastic sleeve. Ms. Hornsby picked up the plastic sleeve and examined it, feeling pretty certain it had to be a fake since she had never heard of a $1000 bill being circulated. She put the item in her back pocket with the intention of doing a little bit more investigation about it later that evening.
When Ms. Hornsby arrived home, she looked online to see if a $1000 bill had ever been issued by the federal government. She found that, indeed, there was. She learned that the U.S. government had last issued the $1000 bill back in 1945. Ms. Hornsby then took a photograph of her find and sent it to her mother, who had worked in a bank for 26 years, to see if her mother could determine if it was authentic. After her mother looked at the photo, she told Sheila that it was likely a real $1000 bill.
Once Ms. Hornsby realized that she had found an incredibly valuable, vintage $1000 bill, she said that her first thoughts were about how she would locate its rightful owner(s). “I know many people probably think that I legitimately found the $1000 bill, so I should keep it. But I know that if I ever lost something of great value that I would hope whoever found it would be kind enough to try to locate me. So my instinct was not to keep it; instead I immediately felt this huge responsibility to find the person who had lost it.”
Ms. Hornsby searched the internet to determine what options she might have to find the owner of the $1000 bill. Contacting the police, posting in Lost & Found areas of community websites, and posting flyers around the neighborhood where the item was found were all things she considered. After sleeping on it, she decided to first create a brief flyer and give it to the concierges at the 1900 McKinney Ave building. The flyer said, “FOUND POSSIBLE COLLECTIBLE ITEM. Found near building while walking dog on Monday night, 7/28/14. If someone is missing a collectible item, please have them call me and describe it, in order to ensure that it is returned to the rightful owner. Thank you, Sheila.”
On the morning of Tuesday, July 29th, Ms. Hornsby went to the 1900 McKinney building and spoke to Concierge Susan Gutierrez. Ms. Hornsby told Ms. Gutierrez that she had found a collectible item the previous evening, and wondered if anyone had reported the loss of any valuable items in the last 24 hours? Ms. Gutierrez told her that, yes, in fact a resident of the building had reported losing a vintage $1000 bill, and had contacted the building’s management about the loss on the off-chance that the item was turned in. Realizing that the owner of the lost $1000 bill had been located, Sheila made arrangements to meet the owner later that evening when she could come back with the item.
On the evening of Tuesday, July 29th, Ms. Hornsby met the rightful owner of the vintage $1000 bill in the lobby of the high rise building, with a number of concierges and passersby in attendance. When she returned the bill in its sleeve to the resident who had lost it, she was overwhelmed by the positive response of its owner and of those witnessing its return. “It was so gratifying to see how surprised, thankful and happy the owner of the bill was to have it returned,” said Ms. Hornsby. “He kept saying how upset he had been at himself that he had lost the sleeve with the bill, and was certain no one would ever turn it in upon finding it. I really felt like I restored some of his faith in humanity by doing the right thing and returning what I had found. The people that were in the lobby that night when I returned the bill said it really inspired them to want to do similar good deeds, because doing so clearly created a lot of happiness. I did not realize how simply doing the right thing could be so inspiring.”
Park Cities Pet Sitter’s President, Joette White, learned about Ms. Hornsby’s find and her attempts to locate the owner of the valuable item from the sitter herself. Ms. White said that upon hearing Sheila’s story she simply felt a lot of pride in her sitter and in her company. “My business is built on the credibility and trust of my staff. We ask our clients to entrust us with the care of their beloved pets, and are given access to people’s homes when they are away. Having dependable, honest and trustworthy staff is a requirement for what we do. But it is also part of our company mission to ‘be thoughtful to the people around you and think how you can impact them in a positive way’,” said Ms. White. “The actions that Sheila took to do the right thing, of her own volition, is exactly what I would want her or any of my staff to do in that type of scenario. I cannot help but feel proud and inspired by the thoughtful actions of one of my staff.”
Park Cities Pet Sitter, Inc. has served the Dallas area 7 days a week, 365 days a year since 1992. Pet sitting, daily dog walks, pet taxis, overnight sitting, pet supply shopping, litter box cleaning and dog training are all part of the services PCPSI offers. Park Cities Pet Sitter is bonded and insured, and all sitters are employees--not independent contractors. A manager is on-call 24 hours a day to handle any emergencies. Additional information about Park Cities Pet Sitter can be found on their website at http://www.pcpsi.com.
Joette White, Park Cities Pet Sitter, Inc, http://www.pcpsi.com, 214-828-0192, [email protected]
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