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Co-workers take up collection to reward honest clerk BY JULIE SWENSEN Fred Meyer employee Jake Johnson found something he wasn't expecting in a shopping cart in the parking lot of the Crater Lake Highway store. While at work last week, Johnson found a First Interstate Bank bag containing $300 in cash plus receipts totaling more than $5,000. "I sort of had the thought, `Hey, maybe that should be mine," Johnson said, laughing. "Obviously, I couldn't do that." Going against what other people told him later they would have done -- kept the money -- Johnson, 19, called up his manager and reported what he'd found. "Their reaction was 'What?"' Johnson remembered. About a half an hour later, someone from a church called and asked if a bank bag with money and receipts inside had been found. A woman showed up, gave Johnson a handshake, said "God Bless," and left. "She looked like she was shocked that I actually returned it," Johnson said. "It's not every day that somebody brings in (that much money) and leaves it out in the cart." Neither Johnson nor other store employees at Fred Meyer knew what church it was. Fred Meyer food manager Brett DeMartini said when employees find wallets or purses they turn them into the customer information desk, and Johnson was doing his job. But DeMartini doesn't think any Fred Meyer employee has found as much money as Johnson did, and said co-workers are taking up a collection as a reward for him. Johnson said employees came up and shook his hand, and just hearing "Wow, that was impressive of you" was fine for him. Besides retrieving shopping carts, the Medford teen works as a bottle clerk at the store. His goal is to become a computer technician and own a business. If customers are looking for an honest person to do business with, they won't have to look far. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA