Island Park deliveryman returns wallet with $1,150 inside untouched

Rob LoMacchio was having a bad day.

On Jan. 26, the vitamin and health food business owner was trying to keep up with his New Year’s resolution by heading to the gym for an early morning workout. But LoMacchio got a call that one of his shops didn’t have enough staff, and he detoured there instead.

Stressed from the unexpected inconvenience, he decided to grab lunch at Bagel Boys on Austin Boulevard in Island Park after taking care of the issue.

Since LoMacchio had originally planned to go to the gym, he was wearing pocket-less sweat pants and was forced to carry his wallet in the front pocket of his sweatshirt.

After lunch, LoMacchio went about his day — he did some work and visited his mother. About an hour had passed when he realized his wallet, containing $1,150 in cash, was missing.

As he began retracing his steps, his son called from home. A deliveryman from Bagel Boys was at his house looking to return the wallet.

Lomacchio raced home, cutting the man off with his car, as he was about to drive away. He offered a reward to the man — who wished to be identified as Ed — but he refused. Ed instead requested that LoMacchio “pay it forward.”

LoMacchio said he learned that he had dropped his wallet in the Bagel Boys bathroom. The cash, as well as a handful of checks — which he planned on depositing that day — was returned untouched.

“This man was very honorable,” LoMacchio said. He said that when he visited Bagel Boys, it was very busy and that Ed could have taken the money without anybody noticing.

“Twelve-hundred dollars could have made a big impact on him,” he said. “It could have helped him out, but he didn’t [take it].”

For LoMacchio, the money wasn’t a big concern. It was the wallet he really cared about.

His father — who claimed it had given him good fortune during his life — gave it to him on his deathbed. “It was almost like a lucky rabbit’s foot for him,” LoMacchio said.

The now 30-year-old wallet is ragged, and LoMacchio recently had to send it to a shoemaker for repairs. He said it has a lot of sentimental value to him.

When asked about the incident, Ed said for anyone hearing the story to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an organization dedicated to children’s cancer research.