Waterford — It was an “oh my goodness” moment for Joyce Gardner when she took her first peek inside the woman’s wallet she’d run over with her car on Sunday as she was pulling into a parking spot outside Ocean State Job Lot.

The 62-year-old New London woman said she could see several $100 bills inside, but did not want to be too nosey and never counted the cash before dropping it off at the Waterford Police Department. She left the wallet — and what police said was $726 in cash and various credit cards — with a “Happy Thanksgiving” wish for the officer to pass on to the owner.

“I just saw it and knew with the holidays that someone would need it,” Gardner said.

She was right.

Waterford police contacted Gardner on Wednesday to let her know the woman who owned the wallet was grateful and that the cash was to be used for Christmas presents for her family. Gardner said the woman was from Higganum.

Waterford police shared the story on their Facebook page Wednesday under the heading: “Holiday Miracle?”

“With all of the ‘bad’ things that go on, we just wanted you to know of something good that we got to help out with, and way to go Joyce Gardner, you really helped out someone!” the post reads.

Gardner works as a registrar at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and is the daughter of the late Ernie Gardner, a former New London police sergeant.

She said she’s gotten a kick out of the warm responses to her act of honesty.

“You might think it’s a big deal, but I just did what I thought I should do,” she said. “I’d expect the same in return, but I know that might not always be the case. I did the right thing and that’s the important thing. It’s something I was taught and I taught my daughters and grandchildren.”

Waterford police Lt. Brett Mahoney said he’d “certainly like to think the majority of people are quite honest,” but knows that realistically in someone else’s hands the wallet might not have been returned.

“It was a sizeable amount of cash,” Mahoney said. “She did the right thing and as a result she changed someone’s holiday fortunes for sure.”

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay 

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