I’m hoping you all are ready to hear a nice uplifting story. It is time to get away from politics, sinking cruise boats, Europe’s finances, bowl games gone bad, and all the other negative issues that stalk us.

Every week I go to the Peabody Police Department and get a report on the previous week’s criminal activity in our fine city. Chief Bruce Burke is more than just a smidge tight with the descriptive word. He gives me “just the facts.” He never names names and he never hints at details, locations, or explanations. He is extra cautious about the information he gives me, ever mindful of the fact that it will be published. Sometimes I think I am his personal nightmare.

However, this week he had a special story to share, a situation for which he could use a little public help. It will be alright to print some names and some details about this story. He is hoping for a happy ending, and I am in his corner on that one!

He told me a person brought an envelope to him that had obviously been out in the elements. It was dimpled, warped, and scuffed, a bit smudged at the edges. It was a Christmas gift envelope and he expressed amazement that the envelope contained cash. The finder had turned it in to Burke’s office in hopes that the rightful owner could be found.

“I don’t usually see the person who finds cash,” he said. “Usually I see the person who has lost it and thinks there is no hope of ever getting it back. I almost always think they are right.” But not this time!

He gave me the information he thinks he needs to give the rightful owner a good chance at having the money returned. Here is what he said:

“The cash is someone’s Christmas gift. The person who received the gift of money is named Cody and the person who gave Cody the money is his grandmother. The grandmother’s name is Ruby.”

Does either description fit you or anyone you know?

If you are Cody, here is what you need to do to reclaim your Christmas gift. Contact Chief Burke at the Peabody Police Department at (620) 983-2133 and make arrangements for you and Grandma Ruby to go see him. (If Grandma Ruby lives somewhere else, you will have to ask Chief Burke just how he wants you to handle this part.) He is going to want you to describe the gift envelope, tell him where you think you might have lost it, and tell him how much money was in it.

That is how you prove the Christmas cash is really yours.

The final thing is to always remember that some nice person turned your money in to someone he thought would be able to find you and return it. I think that is pretty rare and you are lucky. The odds are good that you will find something that belongs to someone else in your lifetime — I hope you remember this and do the right thing when the time comes.

— Susan Marshall