Transfer student gets warm welcome from bus employees

One of the reasons junior Samantha Gnop transferred to IU was because she thought the people were friendly.\nLittle did she know how considerate they could be.\nGnop, who is originally from New Jersey, was riding a campus bus last week when her key chain broke, leaving her wallet on the bus. Tucked inside Gnop's wallet was all of her identification and a $100 bill that her mom had given her as emergency money.\nGnop didn't realize she had lost her wallet until getting off the bus, but much to her surprise it wasn't the last she'd see of her wallet or her money.\nAs the buses rolled in that night, Gnop's wallet was still on the bus she had ridden. Just by chance, Sean Hardesty, a service attendant, left his regular position in the wash bay to check for falling signs in one of the buses. When walking through the bus, he spotted the wallet that had been overlooked by a bus sweeper.\nEmployees check all wallets when they find them, just to have a log of the contents. When Hardesty looked in Gnop's wallet, he spotted the $100 bill. In most cases, items found on the buses are put into lost and found, but Hardesty decided for his own peace of mind he wanted to make sure the money got back to its rightful owner.\n"It was a $100, if I'd lost a wallet, I hope someone would do that for me. If I expect it to happen to me, then I should do it for other people," Hardesty said.\nHardesty took the wallet to his supervisor who then called Gnop the next day to let her know that the wallet and money were safe.\n"James Locke was a driver that was leaving here around the same time, so I arranged a meeting for the two and he's the one who actually delivered the wallet back to her," night manager David Fisher said.\nWhile employees at bus services do all they can to get lost items back to students, some items are not identifiable. Hardesty stresses the need for students to come in and look for items they've lost.\n"There's quite a bit in our lost and found. All of it just sits there because students don't think to come in and look for it," Hardesty said.\nGnop said the action speaks of the type of people at IU.\n"It's very admirable. If you think about it a hundred dollars would be pretty nice, but they gave it back. They set an example for the rest of us, it show's that there's still good in the world," Gnop said. "This wouldn't have happened in Jersey. It's definitely a nice introduction to the Midwest"