An Honest Boy Finds a Wallet

In September, 1960, when Bill Armstrong was 12, he and his mother were walking behind the grandstand on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. They were on their way to bingo.

Bill spied a wallet on the ground and found $367 in it. That was a large amount of money, worth about $3,200 today. Bill and his mother intended to turn it in to the police, of course, but his mom insisted on going to the bingo game first.

After the game, they went to the police detachment on the CNE grounds. Just as the officer on duty was writing it up, the wallet’s owner arrived to report it lost. Both the officer and the owner were full of praise for Bill’s honesty, but the owner gave Bill only $5 as a reward. The officer wasn’t impressed and said he’d give Bill a copy of the report so that he had something to remember the event by.

But eventually Bill was rewarded for his honesty. He was a carrier for the Toronto Star, and the newspaper published a story about his return of the wallet. Because his father was a leaseholder for a Texaco gas station, he was brought onstage at a party for Texaco station owners and lessees, where he was given a CFL regulation football as a gift.

And then the CNE called and invited Bill and his parents to have dinner in the executive dining room in the Queen Elizabeth Building and attend a performance by Victor Borge, a comedian and pianist, while seated in the royal box. So, in the end, Bill was glad he’d turned in the wallet — it led to bigger things.