Fledgling rockers generally don’t make much money, so when a good Samaritan found and returned $7,000 belonging to pop-punk band Eleventeen, he was smothered with thanks.
“They were hugging me, they couldn’t believe it,” said Frank Gawronski, who found the loose bills along a highway. “It was kind of a nice feeling. They were very appreciative.”
The San Francisco-based band, traveling with the Vans Warped Tour 2003, had left their cash box on the roof of their car Thursday. They were staying at a Dunkirk hotel after a concert in Buffalo, about 60 miles east.
Instead of making spending plans, Gawronski handed the money to police.
“I had no idea where it came from. I just knew it was somebody’s money,” the retired teacher said Friday.
Gawronski was at the police station when the musicians, who had reported the lost money, arrived to retrieve it.
The band offered Gawronski a reward, but he turned it down. He did accept a copy of the band’s CD, and a promise of concert tickets should they ever hit it big.
