Wallet lost at Walmart returned with more than $5,000 still inside

June 5 (UPI) -- A British Columbia woman said she was overwhelmed with relief when a wallet she lost at a Walmart store was returned with its contents -- more than $5,000 in cash -- still intact.

River Johnson of Enderby said she returned home from taking her elderly parents shopping at the Walmart store in Vernon before she realized she no longer had the wallet, which contained $7,000 in Canadian currency -- U.S. $5,211 -- from her two cannabis stores.

"I was losing it," Johnson told iNFOnews.ca. "There was a lot of fear and hopelessness thinking I'm never going to see it again."

Johnson said she called the store, even though it was closed at the time, and was relieved when an employee answered the phone.

"He said 'don't you worry, now you can sleep tonight, it's in our safe,'" Johnson said.

Johnson returned the following day and was told that a manager, Ralph Buisine, had found the wallet and stored it in the safe in the hopes of its owner returning to claim it.

"He's an unspoken hero, he saved my business," Johnson told the Keremeos Review. "I've had wallets lost with less than that in them and never returned, or returned without the money."

Johnson said she was especially impressed after learning that Buisine had lost his own business, 9Round gym, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If I found that, I don't know what I would do if I was close to losing my house and having all these problems," Johnson said. "But he didn't do that. He made sure I had my money back."

She said Buisine told her Walmart store policy forbids him from accepting any rewards for his deed.

"This is way more than luck, this is angels at work ... and it happened to be this guy, he was my angel that night, he's an unsung hero," Johnson said.