Losing more than $2,000 in cash and a number of personal items just before a vacation could have proved a distressing ordeal for Rene Minks.

However, Mr. Minks was fortunate enough to have lost his belongings on Victoria Street and on the beat of Corporation of Hamilton street sweeper Bubby E. Sousa.

Mr. Sousa recovered around $2,400 in cash, a cheque for about $400 and a passport, all the property of Mr. Minks, on Victoria Street on Tuesday morning after Mr. Minks, had unknowingly dropped them. He had been getting out of his car when he lost the items.

Mr. Sousa turned the items into his supervisor who contacted Mr. Minks to arrange a return. However, the kind deed Mr. Sousa performed was not the first of its kind. Corporation of Hamilton Secretary Roger Sherratt said that earlier this year Mr. Sousa was the recipient of a special award from the Mayor of Hamilton for his work in returning other lost items he had found.

Bubby found $190 in a BTC bill in an envelope and went to the office himself and paid the bill with the cash he had collected - the cash was the exact amount of the bill.

Several weeks later Mr. Sousa was emptying a trash bin behind City Hall car park and found an apparently stolen handbag at the bottom. The cash had been removed, but the handbag contained personal papers and credit cards which Mr. Sousa returned.

Last night Mr. Minks said: “It's wonderful that he found it instead of someone else that might have used it.”