From a Little Honesty Comes a Great Reward for Needy Family

Their reward came from people they have never met--people from all over the country who reached into their own pocketbooks to show the Nichter family that honesty pays.

Homeless and jobless, Tom and Pauline Nichter and their 11-year-old son, Jason, became role models after they turned in a wallet containing $2,394 in cash, a credit card, a passport and a plane ticket last Thursday night.

Ever since their story appeared in newspapers and on television, they have been flooded with an outpouring of donations, letters and interview requests from across the country.

The wallet, found at a toy store here, belonged to a tourist visiting from New Caledonia, who thanked the Nichters for their honesty.

“It’s just overwhelming for our family,” said teary-eyed Pauline Nichter, 46, at a news conference Tuesday at the Buena Park police station. “I can’t believe this. All we did was what we were brought up to do--to be honest. We’re getting our second chance, and God, it feels good.”

Tom Nichter, 44, said that just when he and his family were about to give up hope, “all this happened.”

At the news conference, Mayor Arthur C. Brown presented the Nichters with a commendation from the city, and Police Detective David L. Woofter gave them a check for $300 from the Buena Park Police Assn. Police Chief Richard M. Tefank handed Jason a set of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) trading cards.

“It’s just like a dream--a miracle that has happened to us,” said Jason, who has a collection of 1,402 baseball cards and whose classmates have begun asking him for his autograph.

“Never in a million years would I have thought this would happen for us,” Pauline Nichter said.

She said the requests for interviews have been nonstop and have included magazines, newspapers and talk shows from Los Angeles to Canada. Talk show host Maury Povich and radio celebrity Rick Dees have called. Earlier Tuesday, the family was whisked by limousine to Burbank to be guests via satellite on the “Today Show.”

Among the donations forwarded to the Nichters was a check for $2,400. An elderly couple arrived at the police station after hearing about the Nichters and asked the amount of money they had returned. The husband wrote out the check and said, “Then that’s what they deserve,” according to police.

The family lost their apartment after Pauline Nichter was laid off her job with a Buena Park company a year ago. Her husband, who has worked in warehouses, has not had a steady job in a year.