Local News in Brief : One Good Deed Worth $22,460

A retiree who was “just being a Good Samaritan” found $22,460 inside a phone booth at a Glendale car wash Thursday, then promptly turned in the cash to police, who returned it to its owner.

Louis Segal, a West Los Angeles man in his 60s, walked into the Northeast Division station about 1:15 p.m. and handed over two vinyl pouches filled with cash.

“I found this in a phone booth. It’s a lot of money,” Officer Tom Okey quoted Segal as saying. “He was trembling,” the officer added.

Police said the money, mostly $100 and $50 bills, had been left on a shelf beneath a phone outside the California Car Wash by Albert Molina, 26, of Atwater, who reported he had misplaced it while his Porsche was being washed.

“Lucky, lucky, lucky,” Molina said. “This will be the last time I lose anything.”

Molina, who owns a company that does immigration consulting work, said that he took the money out of a safe to buy furniture for a new business he is opening. He said he will give a $2,000 reward to Segal.

“I wasn’t even going to call the police,” Molina said. “I figured, ‘Who is going to turn in so much cash?’ ”

But Capt. James Whitley said of Segal: “He was just being a Good Samaritan.”