Fate sought to tempt legal secretary Dhaima Brookes when she stumbled upon $1 million in an ATM in the Portmore Mall, St Catherine, yesterday. Undeterred by any possible temptation to walk away with the find, Brookes displayed an act of goodwill, which angered many when she handed the money over to the authorities.

Brookes was cursed by persons at the mall who witnessed the discovery after she stumbled on the 10 stacks of $1,000 bills neatly packaged in a white plastic bag.

Card not working

Speaking with The Gleaner after making her statement to the Waterford police in Portmore, she recounted how she attempted to draw cash from one of the two ATMs at the plaza. The other machine was being serviced by two Guardsman armoured security personnel.

"My card wasn't working, so I let someone go ahead of me when I noticed a white bag was on the floor in the other ATM," she said.

After deliberating her next move, Brookes alerted the woman who was in the other ATM. She did not realise, however, that the woman, Michelle Lewis, was a policewoman attached to the Elletson Road Police Station in Kingston.

"I knew whoever we gave the money to I would need to have all of their details," Lewis said. "So I held the package tight to my bosom. I wouldn't give it to anyone but the Supe (superintendent)."

Rushed out

Brookes chipped in that a man shouted out, "You've found some money, jook out her eye!" alerting shoppers in the mall. Fearful of what would happen next, she rushed out of the mall with Lewis and the money in a black carrier bag.

Lewis and Brookes both maintained that they did the right thing despite persons taunting them about handing over the significant cash find.

"I think honesty is the best policy and I feel very comfortable with my decision, but I don't want anyone to lose his or her job," Lewis said.

"It was the right thing to do," Brookes added.

When the Gleaner team arrived in Waterford, a Guardsman armoured van was stationed outside the police station. Inside were four employees of the security firm, two dressed in uniform and two in polo shirts marked with an ATM logo on the sleeves.

Although the men declined to speak with The Gleaner, one of them dressed in a black polo shirt, who had previously made a statement to the police, was animated as he relayed his experience to a friend outside the station.

Valerie Juggan-Brown, group manager of Guardsman Limited, told The Gleaner yesterday that the security firm was extremely grateful and proud of Jamaicans like Brookes.

Act lauded

Juggan-Brown lauded the act saying: "How many Jamaicans would do what she did? She will be given a big reward to say 'thank you'. It's nice to know there is someone out here like her."

While Juggan-Brown praised the act of kindness, she stressed that such incidents were not commonplace and cited human error as the cause.

"Many measures are taken to prevent incidents such as this from occurring," she said.

"There is usually a casket used to store the money, but it seems as though the money was rested on the counter. It's a busy period and it's not something that happens often."