He Learns Patience Has Its Reward--$100

For a 10-year-old, J.D. Farmer showed remarkable restraint when he found a wadded-up $100 bill on his way to College Park Elementary School in Costa Mesa.

He didn’t blow it at the toy store. Didn’t buy way too much candy. Or change it in for 400 quarters to play video games.

Instead he gave it to his principal, who turned it into police three months ago.

Then, “everybody just forgot about it,” J.D. said.

Until Thursday.

No one claimed the new C-note--the type with an enlarged mug of Benjamin Franklin--so Costa Mesa officers returned it to the boy along with a certificate and a civics lesson on the rewards of doing right.

“I think it’s patience,” J.D. said, when asked what he learned, “because if you have it, you can have stuff.”

Mom Max Farmer offered her son practical advice as Costa Mesa Police Lt. Ron Smith handed over the bill.

“Hang onto it, sweetheart. It’ll be gone before you know it,” she said.

She was right.

J.D. broke the big bill to buy a video cartridge at Toys “R” Us in Santa Ana for a little over $50. Then, $10 will go to the family church, Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Costa Mesa, and the rest will be plowed into a bank account.

The fourth-grader found the bill near Loyola and Villanova roads Jan. 9 on his way to school. All day, it distracted him.

“I kept taking it out, and the teacher kept asking, ‘What are you doing?’ ” he said.

The next day he gave the cash to Principal Kathy Sanchez, and police took a report--and the bill--a few days later.

The 90-day period for the rightful owner to come forward had passed, so the money went back to J.D., Smith said.

J.D.’s eyes widened under his wire-rimmed glasses when he held the bill for the second time, awed by the cash (he’s more accustomed to $5 weekly allowance) and the swarm of TV cameras and microphones.

Good deeds like this should help J.D. in his planned careers.

“I want to be a Navy SEAL,” he said. “After that, if I survive, I might want to be one of those James Bond guys.”

To 007, of course, $100 is mere pocket change.