A family’s holiday season went from despair to joy Thursday after it learned that $32,000 in cash that it thought it had lost was returned by a good Samaritan.

“Our hearts dropped,” said Erika Gonzalez, of the moment that she and her mother, Berta Gonzalez, realized the money they intended to put in a bank had been left behind somewhere Wednesday evening.

It turned out the cash had been dropped at an Applebee’s restaurant at Cedar and Herndon avenues in Fresno, where they had stopped for dinner after running errands.

Read the article “Holiday Joy: Fresno Waiter Returns Family’s Lost $32,000” on fresnobee.com.