Car wash owner rewards honest customer

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(NECN: Greg Wayland) - A customer comes clean at a Taunton, Massachusetts car wash. A machine started spitting out quarters, and instead of pocketing the coins, he turned them in.

The owner of the car wash thanked the man with five free car washes.


His name is Noel Sierra from Providence, Rhode Island and early Sunday morning he wound up with a clean car and a clean conscience. He says he just tried to do the right thing.

The owner of the Prestige Car Wash in Taunton, Mass wanted to reward him for his honesty.

The Prestige is a super-duper wash with all the suds and a busy detailing service, but it was closed Sunday morning when Noel pulled in in his Buick Le Sabre just looking to turbo vac the interior at what they call the vacuum island -- which sent him to the brand new change machine called, the Bill Breaker.

Noel Sierra: "I needed a dollar for change because it's a dollar twenty five.  I didn't have the rest , so I went to the machine.
     
But the Bill Breaker behaved like a one-armed bandit that had rolled up three cherries.
     
Noel: "And the more change that I kept moving, the more change kept falling."
     
The car wash owner found out about it Monday morning.

Nir Drory: "The machine gave someone a hundred and sixty-seven dollars worth of quarters. I was losing my mind. I said there's no way. "
     
But he knew somebody had resisted the temptation to take the jackpot.  That's because Noel acted honorably.

Noel: "And I thought to myself, somebody's going to lose a lot of money. So I picked up my phone and called the police. I didn't know who else to call. The place was closed and there was nobody around."

On Monday, Nir Drory sent his assistant down to pick up the accidental payout.

 Six hundred sixty eight quarters. One hundred sixty seven dollars.

Noel had driven off and thought nothing of it and nobody could find him. But we found him and told him the car wash owner wanted to see him.

"What happened?" Nir asked Noel after thanking him profusely for his honesty.
     
And after getting the story from Noel, he presented him with a gift -- five deluxe car washes, and a little note, which Noel read out loud.

Noel: "Thank you, Prestige Car Wash," it said. To which Noel, obviously moved, answered, "I appreciate it. "

By the way, Noel couldn't stay long. He had to get to his other job. He's working two jobs! Now there's a guy who could have used 167 dollars.

Drory: "In these tough times we all struggling, everybody's trying to make money. And he did the right thing."
     
By the way, Noel was on his way to church when this happened.

"If nobody's watching me , God's watching me," he said.

And if you think God isn't watching -- well, maybe this will stop you.  They've fixed the machine.

Tags: taunton, Greg Wayland, car wash

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