{"id":192823,"date":"2026-04-10T23:09:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/192823\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:09:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:09:39","slug":"north-carolina-chick-fil-a-worker-18-finds-10k-in-restroom-and-returns-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/192823\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Chick-fil-A worker, 18, finds $10K in restroom and returns it"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 18-year-old Chick-fil-A<\/a> worker in North Carolina made a surprising call after stumbling on nearly $10,000 in cash left behind in the restaurant\u2019s bathroom during his break.<\/p>\n

Jayden Cintron was working a routine shift on Good Friday morning when he stepped away and headed to the restroom \u2014 and after spotting the money, quickly decided he would return every dollar.<\/p>\n

There were two white envelopes near the toilet, one labeled First Citizens Bank and the other Truist Bank, containing a total of $9,333.<\/p>\n

18-year-old Chick-fil-A worker Jayden Cintron spotted $9,333 in cash in the restroom and returned it to its owner. WITN<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first thought was just like \u2026 ok, no, this isn\u2019t happening,\u201d he told WITN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of pocketing the cash, Cintron turned it over to the restaurant\u2019s human resources department so it could be returned to its owner.<\/p>\n

The money\u2019s rightful owner offered Cintron $500 as a reward, which he accepted after initially refusing. WITN<\/p>\n

Cintron said the discovery initially left him shaken, but his next move came easily.<\/p>\n

Asked why he didn\u2019t keep the money for himself, he said: \u201cThat\u2019s not what Jesus would\u2019ve done. That\u2019s not what God would\u2019ve wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision stunned those around him, including local law enforcement and the restaurant\u2019s owner, who both said many people would have made a very different choice under the circumstances.<\/p>\n

Cintron said keeping the money he found is \u201cnot what Jesus would\u2019ve done.\u201d Susan Vineyard \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people will \u2026 unfortunately, take that money and run with it,\u201d Kinston Police Chief Keith Goyette said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKudos to that employee at Chick-fil-A. He definitely deserves a reward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restaurant\u2019s owner John McPhail added: \u201cTrue leadership, you know, true integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.<\/p>\n

Chick-fil-A restaurant owner John McPhail said Cintron has \u201ctrue integrity.\u201d WITN<\/p>\n

\u201cJayden did that in this case and he should be commended for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rightful owner later retrieved the envelopes and offered Cintron a $500 reward for his honesty.<\/p>\n

The teen initially refused, saying he didn\u2019t expect anything in return for doing what he believed was right.<\/p>\n

After multiple attempts by the owner to insist, Cintron eventually accepted.<\/p>\n

Cases like this don\u2019t happen often, but they\u2019re not unheard of.<\/p>\n

In 2022, workers at a Tennessee Home Depot tracked down a customer who lost $700 in cash<\/a> meant for Christmas gifts after an envelope was found on the floor of an aisle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to do the right thing,\u201d Alissa Rocchi, an operations assistant and store manager at Home Depot\u00a0in Bellevue,\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

In New York City that same year, a good Samaritan returned a wallet containing $4,000 in cash<\/a> after it was dropped by a commuter in Times Square.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 18-year-old Chick-fil-A worker in North Carolina made a surprising call after stumbling on nearly $10,000 in cash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6596,6700,77141,55007,9,11,10,1064,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-192823","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-chick-fil-a","9":"tag-fast-food","10":"tag-good-deeds","11":"tag-good-samaritan","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-north-carolina","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}