THE HAGUE (AFP) – An online campaign has raised more than EUR34,000 for a homeless man in Amsterdam who turned in a wallet stuffed with EUR2,000 in cash to police.
The 33-year-old Hadjer Al-Ali said his life had been turned “completely upside down”, according to the funding site, which raised EUR34,102 (USD36,450) in just one day.
Hadjer, who has been sleeping on the streets for 18 months, can now finally arrange a rental home with the money, according to the site “support for the honest Hadjer”.
The father-of-two has also received many messages from people offering him a job. One anonymous donor gave EUR750 and there have been 2,800 donations in total. He found the wallet at Amsterdam central station while he was “doing his rounds” looking for empty plastic bottles to exchange for cash.
Police said he turned in the wallet with “approximately EUR2,000… but unfortunately no identity papers or anything that would allow us to contact the owner”.
“Because we think that honesty should pay, he got a ‘silver thumb’ prize that we sometimes give to citizens and a gift voucher worth 50 euros,” authorities added.
“I want to thank everyone so, so, so much… I can’t describe how I’m feeling at the moment… I’ve been inundated by people saying the sweetest, nicest, things,” Hadjer said in a video post on Instagram.
