Community Corner

Honesty Offers Up Its Reward to Tosa 10-Year-Old

It takes awhile, but doing the right thing pays off for McKinley Elementary student.

Sometimes it's better to just let a story tell itself. This is one of those times.

Meet 10-year-old Tylen Riley-Coleman and his mother, Latischa Riley-Coleman, of Wauwatosa. Tylen is now a fourth-grader at McKinley Elementary School.

In January of last year, when Tylen was just 8 and in third grade, something happened to him one day at school. He found something. It was a wallet with $105 cash in it and no identification. Here's what happened.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

January 2010

Tylen: "So, I was going outside, and I forgot my hat in the lunchroom. So I went back in to get my hat, and I fell down, and I saw this wallet under a table.

Find out what's happening in Wauwatosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I picked it up and went to the nearest adult and said, 'I found this wallet.' Because it just felt like the right thing to do.

"I did look in the wallet, and I saw money in it, and that's the main reason why I turned it in to an adult – Ms. Belling, the lunch lady and our speech teacher.

"She took me to the school office, and she said that was a nice thing to do, and she asked me what my favorite candy was, and I said, 'Airheads,' and so about a week later I got a six-pack of Airheads.

"She said I could have the Airheads and, if no one claimed the money by Friday, I could have it, too. But the funny thing was, there was no school on Friday, and so I forgot about it.

"About a month later, I lost my hat again, and I fell down again, and I remembered the wallet. Later that day, I went to the office and asked if anyone had claimed the wallet. No one did.

"But then she said, 'You're too late! A police officer just came and took it.'

"It was at the end of the day, and as I was leaving, there was the police officer. I got really mad!"

Latischa Riley-Coleman: "Why?"

Tylen: "Because he had the wallet! With the money in it!

"I just left. I just forgot about it. 'Till now."

Fast forward to Friday

Latischa: "I got a call, and the lady on the other end says, 'This is the Wauwatosa Police Department.' So I'm freaking out, like, somebody's broken into my apartment and stolen everything.

"Then she says, 'You have a son named Tylen?' And then I was, like, 'What in the world now?'

"She says, 'Your son Tylen turned in a wallet at school, do you remember that?' I said, 'Yeah, I do remember something like that.'

"'Well, no one claimed it, so Tylen can have the money.'

"When I first told him, it was like Christmas, he was so excited. We picked it up the same day, Friday.

"Funny thing, Thursday we were shopping for Opening Day and Tylen wanted to buy a wallet, and I wouldn't let him. I'm just the most frugal person you'll ever know.

"So the next day, he got the money – and they gave him the wallet, too!"

Epilogue

So there you have it. Tylen lost his hat, fell down, found a wallet, turned it in, was offered the wallet, couldn't get it, forgot it, lost his hat again, fell down (again), remembered the wallet, went to get it, the police had it, he forgot it again for a year, wanted a wallet, couldn't have it – and finally got it. And $105 to boot.

The story Tylen didn't know was that McKinley School held the lost wallet for 30 days, then called the police to report it. The police picked it up, examined it, and finding no identification, bagged it and stored it in a property locker.

The department recently conducted a property audit and discovered that the wallet had not been claimed and that the finder was entitled to the money.

Patch asked Tylen what he was going to do with the money. He rolled his eyes at his mother.

"Trying to buy a video game."

He'll get to do that this weekend. Tylen has his eye on "The Simpsons Hit and Run."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Wauwatosa