A REDDITCH firefighter fought more than just fire last week when he became a crime-fighting good Samaritan and helped reunite a Webheath businessman with his stolen wallet.
Justin Clay of JLC Body Repairs realised his wallet, containing £165 in cash, had gone missing from his workplace on Windsor Road at around 3.40pm on Thursday (August 27).
“I had just started to look for it when the call came through from the police,” Justin said. “When I heard it was a firefighter that had handed it in I wanted to do more than just say thank you.”
The 43-year-old called Redditch Fire Station to express his gratitude to Blue Watch Crew Commander Neil Teasdale but was told by the firefighter that he was just doing his job.
“It’s more than Neil’s job to go around picking up stray wallets – apart from the cash that was missing I got everything else back – receipts, cards, cheques it was all there.”
Grateful Justin offered to make a donation to Redditch Fire Service or to treat the firefighter to a drink but kindly Neil politely declined.
“I would obviously want someone to do the same thing for me,” said Neil. “We were only doing the right thing – I’m just glad we managed to get the wallet back to Justin, it was our good deed for the day.”
The Crew Commander and his colleagues brought the fire engine to a stop on Birchfield Road when they spotted the wallet lying the middle of the street with its contents strewn across the road.
“We stopped traffic for a few minutes and retrieved it and collect the contents,” Neil added.
The kindly deed has left Justin feeling grateful.
He said: “I just want to express my gratitude, there’s not many people that would go out of their way to hand it back in.”
