State worker finds $10K in trash, returns to owner

When Cpl. Eric Sanders found a huge pile of trash at a remote Rockdale County property, he also discovered someone else’s treasure — an envelope containing almost $10,000 in savings bonds.

Sanders, a state Department of Natural Resources officer, was patroling an old ranch in Conyers when he stumbled upon the unlawful dump site in January. About 500 pounds of discarded household items had apparently been discarded on private property, he said. The U.S. Treasury bonds were stuffed inside an envelope that was tucked between several books.

Enlarge this image

Andria Simmons / asimmons@ajc.com

Mary Morris looks at the diamond watch and cameo that Department of Natural Resources officer Eric Sanders returned to her after finding them in a dump.

Recent headlines:

• Georgia State gets grant to study school bullying 
• Delta flight to Atlanta diverted to Chattanooga 
• State Masonic group withdraws charges 

   • Metro and state news

“If anybody else had found those bonds, they would probably have tried to cash them,” Sanders said. “But part of my job is to try to return the property to who it belonged to.”

A Christmas card fished out of the trash heap was addressed to George and Mary Morris in Stockbridge. When Sanders showed up at the listed address, the Morrises were nowhere to be found. Relatives told him that George died in October 2007 and Mary, 65, has been staying for the past few years in an assisted living facility.

Sanders told the relatives of his his discovery.

“We’ve never been so floored in all our life,” said Sara Bennett, one of Morris’ cousins.

Relatives said the money from the bonds couldn’t have come at a better time. They were considering selling a portion of the 20-acre property the house sits on — part of a much larger tract of land owned by the family since the 1780s — because repairs to the house were becoming so costly, Bennett said.

The relatives said they needed to fix up the home and rent it to offset expenses for Mary Morris, who requires continuous healthcare.

The savings bonds, which might have helped to pay her bills were thought to have been stolen when burglars ransacked the house shortly before George Morris died. George Morris had worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 40 years, until his failing health forced him to retire from his district manager job at the newspaper’s distribution center in Conyers, Bennett said.

“When [the officer] brought the bonds back, it was like the good Lord said ‘don’t you sell your family’s property,’” Bennett said. “We just felt like it was a true miracle.”

But the investigation did not end until Sanders sat down across from 65-year-old Mary Morris on Friday, in an elegant visitation room at the Yellow Brick House assisted living home in Lithonia.

Thankful as she was for the discovery of the savings bonds, the silver-haired matron was even more taken aback when the officer brandished a diamond watch and a pair of delicate cameo earrings he found in the trash. She said the jeweled watch had been a gift from her husband on their first wedding annivesary in 1968.

“Who would have ever thought it?” she said, her face beaming in surprise.

Sanders was equally giddy after the encounter.

“It was exciting to see the glow in her face,” he said. “Honestly it feels good when I can do something good like that…I’ll always remember it.”