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<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr><td style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 19px; font-family: serif;"> Custodian finds wallet; her honesty questioned </td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; font-family: serif;"> By: Bill Vidonic - Times Staff </td></tr></tbody> </table>
NEW SEWICKLEY TWP. - Before she could be praised for her honesty, Darla Gingerella had to take a lie detector test.
Cleaning woman Gingerella, 41, found a wallet containing more than $1,000 in the trash Sunday night at the New Sewickley Township Police Department, township Police Chief John Daley said Thursday.
The problem developed when the owner of the wallet, Edward Walker, 73, said he might have had more money than that in the wallet, but later, Daley said, admitted he was probably wrong.
Daley said Gingerella, a custodian with Little's Cleaning Service, was cleaning the township building, including the police offices, on Sunday. While emptying a wastebasket, she saw a wallet, hidden by a piece of paper, lying inside. She immediately gave the wallet to police officer Dan Swab, Daley said, who found more than $1,000 in cash, but no clear identification as to who owned the wallet.
Using papers inside the wallet, Daley said, Swab deduced that the wallet could belong to Walker, who had been in the police station the previous week to talk to police about a minor matter.
When contacted by police, Walker told police that the wallet had been in a jacket pocket, and might have fallen into the wastebasket when he took some papers out of the pocket.
Walker said he had noticed the wallet was missing, but didn't file a police report because he didn't know where he might have lost the wallet, Daley said.
When police gave him back the wallet, Daley said, Walker said he might have had up to $3,000 in it. Gingerella was adamant that she hadn't taken anything from the wallet, and Daley said police didn't think that she had.
Despite that, Daley said, police were still obligated to conduct an investigation. After a couple of tense days, Gingerella said, she offered to take a computer voice stress analyzer test, in which measurements of a person's voice determine whether he or she is telling the truth.
The test was administered Wednesday by Economy police officer Dave Farah, and Daley said that Gingerella, to no one's surprise, passed the test.
Daley said when he talked to Edwards on Thursday, Edwards said he "felt bad" about the confusion and the stress that he had put Gingerella through. Edwards also offered to give the woman a reward, Daley said.
Gingerella, of 1715 Fourth Ave., Beaver Falls, said the incident gave her second thoughts about picking something up and turning it in.
But she turned the wallet in initially, she said, because if it were her wallet that was missing, she would hope someone would do the same for her.
"I just did what I thought I should do," Gingerella said. "This could have been somebody's Social Security check. I didn't want them to not be able to pay bills."
Walker's wife, Nola, said Thursday afternoon that her husband was napping and couldn't talk to a Times reporter, but that her husband "didn't know how much money was in the wallet."
Daley said Gingerella should be praised for her honesty, despite all the confusion. She could have kept the wallet, Daley said, and no one would have ever been any the wiser.
"I sometimes like to think that there are good people out there who normally, habitually do the right thing," Daley said.
Times Online.com
NEW SEWICKLEY TWP. - Before she could be praised for her honesty, Darla Gingerella had to take a lie detector test.
Cleaning woman Gingerella, 41, found a wallet containing more than $1,000 in the trash Sunday night at the New Sewickley Township Police Department, township Police Chief John Daley said Thursday.
The problem developed when the owner of the wallet, Edward Walker, 73, said he might have had more money than that in the wallet, but later, Daley said, admitted he was probably wrong.
Daley said Gingerella, a custodian with Little's Cleaning Service, was cleaning the township building, including the police offices, on Sunday. While emptying a wastebasket, she saw a wallet, hidden by a piece of paper, lying inside. She immediately gave the wallet to police officer Dan Swab, Daley said, who found more than $1,000 in cash, but no clear identification as to who owned the wallet.
Using papers inside the wallet, Daley said, Swab deduced that the wallet could belong to Walker, who had been in the police station the previous week to talk to police about a minor matter.
When contacted by police, Walker told police that the wallet had been in a jacket pocket, and might have fallen into the wastebasket when he took some papers out of the pocket.
Walker said he had noticed the wallet was missing, but didn't file a police report because he didn't know where he might have lost the wallet, Daley said.
When police gave him back the wallet, Daley said, Walker said he might have had up to $3,000 in it. Gingerella was adamant that she hadn't taken anything from the wallet, and Daley said police didn't think that she had.
Despite that, Daley said, police were still obligated to conduct an investigation. After a couple of tense days, Gingerella said, she offered to take a computer voice stress analyzer test, in which measurements of a person's voice determine whether he or she is telling the truth.
The test was administered Wednesday by Economy police officer Dave Farah, and Daley said that Gingerella, to no one's surprise, passed the test.
Daley said when he talked to Edwards on Thursday, Edwards said he "felt bad" about the confusion and the stress that he had put Gingerella through. Edwards also offered to give the woman a reward, Daley said.
Gingerella, of 1715 Fourth Ave., Beaver Falls, said the incident gave her second thoughts about picking something up and turning it in.
But she turned the wallet in initially, she said, because if it were her wallet that was missing, she would hope someone would do the same for her.
"I just did what I thought I should do," Gingerella said. "This could have been somebody's Social Security check. I didn't want them to not be able to pay bills."
Walker's wife, Nola, said Thursday afternoon that her husband was napping and couldn't talk to a Times reporter, but that her husband "didn't know how much money was in the wallet."
Daley said Gingerella should be praised for her honesty, despite all the confusion. She could have kept the wallet, Daley said, and no one would have ever been any the wiser.
"I sometimes like to think that there are good people out there who normally, habitually do the right thing," Daley said.
Times Online.com
