(CNN)Jose Nuñez Romaniz was on a mission to buy socks for his grandfather. He'd just helped him find the right ones online, after the elder man had no luck finding them in stores.
The
19-year-old Nuñez just needed to deposit money into his bank account to
make the online purchase. When he tried, he made an astonishing find --
and what he did next has earned him praise and a bit of fame in New
Mexico's most populous city.
Nuñez
drove to an ATM outside a Wells Fargo bank branch Sunday morning just
two minutes from his Albuquerque home to make his deposit.
As
he pulled his truck alongside the machine, he spotted a clear plastic
bag on the ground. It was a "foot-long stack" of $50 and $20 bills, he
said.
"I didn't know what to do. I
was, like, dreaming," Nuñez told CNN. "I was just in shock. I was
looking at myself and just thinking, 'What should I do?'"
Nuñez
said he never considered keeping the cash -- but all sorts of wild
thoughts raced through his mind. Was this some kind of trick? Was
someone going to pull up behind him and kidnap him?
Nuñez called Albuquerque police. Two officers arrived, and the teenager handed over the money.
The officers counted the cash back at their station: It totaled $135,000.
Albuquerque
police understand the money was mistakenly left outside the ATM by a
bank subcontractor that was meant to supply the machine with cash,
Officer Simon Drobik said.
"This
money could have made an incredible amount of difference in his life if
he went down the other path, but he chose ... the integrity path and did
the right thing," Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque police, said.
When
asked for comment about Nuñez's actions Thursday, Wells Fargo spokesman
Tony Timmons said he would defer to the vendor that services the ATMs.
CNN has left a message with that vendor, seeking comment.
Nuñez described finding a "foot-long stack" of cash next to the ATM.
The college student says he could hear his parents' lessons in his head
Nuñez,
a college student who lives at home and helps his parents take care of
his two younger siblings, said his family comes from "humble
beginnings," and that no one in his family has ever been around or seen
that kind of money.
Nuñez said
that as he stared at the cash, waiting for police officers to arrive, he
could hear the lessons of his parents in his head.
"My
parents always taught me to work for my own. Stolen money would never
last you any time," Nuñez recalled his mother and father teaching him.
And
for Nuñez, who comes from a tight-knit Latino family, there was an
infamous guiding force hovering over him to be well-behaved.
"I
had my mom's voice and her 'chancla' in the back of my head," Nuñez
said. "La chancla" is a reference to an often real, often humorous
threat of a flip-flop spanking to keep children on the right path.
Nunez stands by the ATM where he found the bag.
Businesses have feted Jose with some gifts
Nuñez's integrity hasn't gone unrewarded.
City officials feted him Thursday in a ceremony outside Albuquerque's police academy.
The
police chief presented him with a plaque, and has invited Nuñez -- a
Central New Mexico Community College student who intends to study
criminal justice -- to apply for a job as a public service aide at the
police department, Drobik said.
Albuquerque
ESPN Radio 101.7 FM presented him with some signed sports memorabilia
that the station had -- including a football autographed by former NFL
and University of New Mexico linebacker Brian Urlacher.
The
radio station threw in six season tickets for UNM football, said
station president Joe O'Neill, who had heard about Nuñez's story from a
police acquaintance.
And at least
three local businesses presented Nuñez with $500 each, with one of them
-- a restaurant -- adding a $100 gift card, O'Neill said.
"It's the coolest story. ... it's unbelievable what the kid did," O'Neill said.
His mother is proud
Nuñez's
parents immigrated from Mexico in the late 1990s. They once worked in
farm fields picking onions. His father also spent years working as a
dishwasher, cook and in construction. Now the family operates a small
mattress sales business.
Nuñez just finished his first collegiate year. His childhood dream is to work as a crime scene investigator.
Nuñez
said he called his mother right after he contacted police Sunday.
Albuquerque police officers went to the family's home and praised him to
his parents.
"She told me I did the right thing and that she was proud of me," Nuñez said. "She called me and almost started crying."