CAPE MAY – When Paul Hendry entered The Ugly Mug Restaurant Feb. 1, he carried $6,500 cash in his pocket; when he left, he left with nothing. Unbeknownst to Hendry, while he enjoyed a dinner with his wife and two friends, his thick roll of hundred dollar bills, wrapped in a rubber band, slipped out of his pocket and fell to the floor at his feet.
From Cape May, Hendry, a resident of Collingswood, drove to Pittsgrove where he was planning on purchasing a motorcycle.
After the hour drive, he arrived at his destination. That was when he realized the money was gone. In a panic, he retraced his steps; luckily, there weren’t many. “I got on the phone and called The Ugly Mug,” Hendry said. “A woman answered and said she would go look in the booth we were sitting in.”
“He was sitting in a booth in the bar area,” said Diana Lee, the hostess who answered Hendry’s call. “Actually, he was pretty lucky because that night was Scavenger Hunt night. We had five or six teams scattered around and sitting in those booths for the two hours he wasn’t here. So in that sense he was very lucky. I don’t know if someone would have turned it in if they’d found it.”
“I felt terrible. I was shaking.” Hendry admitted, unsure what had happened to his money.
“I went over to where they were sitting and darned if it wasn’t on the floor!” Lee said. She picked up the money and brought it back behind the bar, to a safe place. “I got back on the phone and told him I found it. I didn’t want to say it too loud because it was a lot of money. It was all rolled up with a rubber band around it.”
“The bottom line is that she could have easily picked that up and walked away with it,” Hendry said. “But she didn’t. A lot of people would have kept it.”
Hendry drove the hour back to Cape May and walked in to the Ugly Mug where Lee handed him his $6,500 cash, all accounted for.
“I peeled off a $100 bill and tried to hand it to her, you know? But she said, ‘No sir, I don’t want it.’”
“When he tried to give me a tip, I didn’t take it because he was using his money for something personal for him, something he worked hard for. The first person I thought of after everything happened was my dad. He worked for 30 years to finally be able to get his motorcycles and his boat. I remember how happy he was to have that piece of him, that piece of fun – he’d earned it. So I didn’t want to take anything away from (Hendry).”
Heidi DiLarso, the daytime manager at The Ugly Mug wasn’t there when it happened but she said, “I’m very proud that my employee did something like that. You don’t usually hear good stories like that. The gentleman was very very happy when he came back.”
“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Lee said. “But to this guy, he seems pretty grateful and I’m happy he was able to get it back. He worked hard for it and it was his money.”
To contact Bryon Cahill, email bcahill@cmcherald.com.
Sea Isle City – I would like to let everyone know that the fire chief salary also includes 4% raises in the next four years, while they offered public works and everybody else much less.
