Walmart worker honored for returning $20k left in shopping cart

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An upbeat immigrant from Ghana, known for his cheerful helping of customers at the Walmart in Federal Way, is being honored by the retail giant for his quick work in returning an envelope stuffed with cash to the customers who had accidentally left it in a shopping cart.

It was in the early afternoon of a mid-October 2012 day that Bismark Mensah was collecting carts outside a Walmart in Federal Way, a part-time job for which he earned $9.05 an hour as a “courtesy associate.”

He was used to finding stuff in carts that customers had somehow forgotten — keys, credit cards, wallets. And he turned them in to customer service.

But this particular item stood out. It was a white envelope with a clear window in the middle, bulging with what was inside, a lot of cash. Around $20,000, it turned out.

Because of what he did that afternoon, Mensah now is in possession of a plaque that names him the winner of the retail giant’s national 2013 “Integrity in Action Award.”

That $20,000 belonged to Leona Wisdom and Gary Elton, a couple from Black Diamond.

The wife says they were returning home from getting the money at a finance company when they stopped off to shop at the Walmart at South 345th Street and 16th Avenue South.

Wisdom says she’s a caregiver who works with people who are disabled. The cash was for a down payment on a house the couple was buying on a short sale. They didn’t get the money as a check, Wisdom says, because they didn’t want to wait days for it to clear.

Wisdom had two carts full of merchandise and Mensah helped her take the stuff to the trunk of her car. As she was driving away, Mensah noticed what had fallen out of her purse — that thick envelope.

“I run after them. I think somebody heard me and signaled for them to stop,” he remembers.

Mensah handed her the envelope.

“She was like, ‘Wow!’ Tears are coming out. She took some money and tried to reward me. I said, ‘No, no. I’m all right,’ ” says Mensah.

Mensah says keeping the $20,000 never occurred to him.

“My conscience wouldn’t allow it. I couldn’t even drive home if I did that,” he says.

Wisdom says she called the store twice to make sure management knew about Mensah’s good deed.

She also tried to again do something to thank him, but he declined her offer to be taken out to dinner.

Wisdom says she also asked Mensah if he was single, which he is, as she has a daughter who is single. “It’s hard to find honest people,” she explains.