Imagine the horror of rummaging around in your pocket for your pay packet and finding it’s no longer there? Add the fact that it’s three days before Christmas and the horror doubles.
This is what happened to a Polish builder who stopped in at a London pub a few days before Christmas and accidentally dropped his wages. The envelope contained £600 (more than $1100).
But thanks to the pub landlord and the massive social media campaign he launched in search of the man, he has been reunited with his money.
After the pay packet, which only had the name “Mariusz” written on it, was found at The Alexandra pub in Wimbledon, southwest London, pub landlord Mick Dore, 51, tweeted a photograph of it with the message, “I’ve just been informed we found a pay packet here last night. Tell me which bar it was in, your name & how much, it’s yours to pick up.”
Over the next few days his post received 1.5 million views on Facebook and more than three million interactions on Twitter – with the entire world seemingly getting in behind him to find the owner of the lost wages.
And the world’s efforts paid off. On December 28 Mariusz walked through the pub’s front door and calmly informed pub staff: “I’m Mariusz and I think you’ve got my money.”
Dore was clearly excited to let the world know, tweeting: ‘OH MY GOD WE’VE GOT HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He’s just walked in the sports bar, I’ve checked the CCTV, and it’s him!!!’
Apparently not one person tried to fraudulently claim the money, and the message reached Mariusz after his son saw the retweeted post and asked his dad, “Could this be you Dad?”
In a heartfelt post, Dore thanked everyone who had been involved in helping him track down the owner of the lost wages:
“We just want to say a HUUUUGE thank-you to everyone who tweeted it, retweeted it, translated it, put zeds into etc. We never had one single fraudulent claim (a couple of jokey ones only) and Mariusz’s son SAW IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA, “could this be you Dad?”. You did it people!!!
We can’t think of a more cheering example of Christmas ‘goodwill to all men’ being shown, actually.
Said one follower of the story, “this has been such a wonderful and heartwarming story over Christmas… I would definitely love to visit such a great pub with such a wonderful landlord/landlady who have great honesty and integrity.”
Us too.
