VALDOSTA — Finding thousands of dollars is a reward–but returning it to its owner is an even better dividend.

Local car dealer Henry Eason, owner of The Auto Company, returned about $9,000 in checks and $6,000 in cash to another car dealer in Ormond Beach, Fla. earlier this year.

“Anyone in the car business realizes that it was a 100 to 1 shot that I wouldn’t have gotten that money back,” Roger Dean, owner of Dean’s Auto Outlet in Ormond Beach, Fla. and receiver of the lost money, said. “I’ve been in the car dealership business for a long time and about 2 percent of the people would’ve have returned the money.”

Eason found the money in a 1997 green Jeep Cherokee after he purchased it from Manheim Auctions in Daytona Beach, Fla. The money was in a bank deposit bag sitting over the driver’s side sun visor.

“We were looking through the car for damages, and different things to see what kind of shape it was in,” Eason said. “It [deposit bag] wasn’t hidden or anything.”

Dean had given the money to his father, who has been in the car dealership business since the late 1940s, to deposit into the bank. He never made it there.

He forgot where he placed the bank bag and therefore forgot to make the deposit. The next day the vehicle was sold in the auction to Eason.

“From the time it left here to the time it got to his lot, it had to be at least 50 people who stuck their head in and out of the car,” Dean said.

“If you count all of the hands that went through the car, the odds are that it would not have ever gotten back to me.”

Eason contacted Dean the day after he purchased the car using the name and number written on the deposit slips. To add icing on the cake, Eason agreed to meet Dean half way, Jacksonville, Fla., to return the money.

“It blew me away when he said he found the money, but then to meet me half way to give it to me was just beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” Dean said.

He added that he has been in the business for 25 years, and this is one of the few instances that he cannot describe in words.

“It’s definitely the most unusual and the most remarkable thing I’ve experienced being a car dealer, but that really doesn’t even size it up,” Dean said.

Eason agreed that nothing like this has happened to him before, but he said the decision came to him like second nature. As a strong believer in God, Eason attributes him making the right choice to the Lord.

“Well I was just trying to do the right thing,” he said. “I guess that when you listen to the Lord he’ll tell you what to do, and if you follow his instructions you’ll do the right thing.”

Eason did not expect an award for returning the money because he believes his blessings will come in some other form.

“Over the years I have been blessed and you don’t want to take someone else’s blessings away from them,” Eason said.

Dean, on the other hand, insisted on showing his gratification.

“I gave him a hundred dollars to take his wife out to dinner for Valentine’s Day,” Dean said. “That is all he would except. He wouldn’t even let me buy him lunch or anything.”

One personal reward Eason said he has gotten for doing his good deed was to serve as an example for others to follow.

“I’ve got two little children and I want them to do the right thing, so I guess you have to teach by example,” he said. “I also wanted to set a good example for my employees because that’s how we do business here.”

The 45-year-old Tifton native has been in the car business for 24 years. He has been self employed since July 1, 1991 and this year will mark The Auto Company’s 14th year anniversary.

When asked if he could do the whole thing over again, would he change anything, he answered no because he has received the best prize that money cannot buy.

“I’ve never experienced this type of thing before, but the comments I have received from this is overwhelming, and I must say that its better than the money.”