Boy Scout finds $800 in wallet and returns it

updated 2:05 p.m. ET April 30, 2008

DORR, Mich. — When an 11-year-old Boy Scout found someone's wallet with $800 inside, he understood what the person who lost it was going through.

Only a few weeks before, he had lost his own wallet and the $45 it contained.

J.R. Bouterse immediately told an adult about his discovery, which was turned over to a law-enforcement official and returned to its grateful owner.

"We're just so proud of him," said the boy's mother, Michelle Bouterse, 41. "We can't say enough."

To reward the boy, the Michigan State Police threw a pizza party Monday night, not only for the law-abiding child but for all 30 Scouts in Troop 90.

Surprise guest
Another guest at the party, to J.R.'s surprise, was 20-year-old Jessica Cutler, the wallet's owner, who wanted to personally thank him for his act of honesty.

"I can't believe someone would find a wallet with that much money in it and not take some," she said. "A lot of people maybe wouldn't have done that same thing. I'm just glad he found it and not someone else."

J.R. found the wallet a little more than a week ago while leaving a Scout meeting at the church.

"I knew exactly how she felt," he said.

Not exactly: His own wallet has not yet been returned to him.

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