Nice Time! Atlanta Hotel Rewards Homeless Guy For Wallet Return, Doesn't Smash His Belongings Or Anything!

A homeless man in Atlanta, Georgia, is being rewarded for the basic decency he exhibited a couple weeks ago, when he found a French woman's wallet in a trash can while looking for food. He checked several downtown Atlanta hotels before staff at the Omni Hotel found that the woman, Anne Drouart, was staying there. After a highly publicized search, the good guy, Joel Hartman, was found Friday and is staying in the Omni gratis until the day after Thanksgiving; the hotel is also giving him a $500 cash reward and free room service during his stay, including a Thanksgiving dinner. We're also hoping that maybe someone at the hotel thought to call a social worker? So rejoice, America! Homelessness is over!

Hartman says that he's been homeless since his longtime girlfriend died in March; he carries his belongings in a 90-pound pack, and sometimes has to sleep in the woods. Drouart had been in Atlanta for a medical conference and had her purse stolen when she was walking to her car. When Hartman found the wallet, the first thing that he thought of when he saw the identification cards was, "Poor woman, she already lost her wallet ... That’s got to be awful to be in another country and have this happen." When he returned the wallet, he gave a false name, "Josh Crabber," because he didn't see any reason to use his real name (the TV news vid above also indicates that he goes by "Kenny" as well).

Hartman's story is awesome, and there's no faulting the Omni management for their generosity -- they could have easily given Hartman a sandwich and sent him on his way. Hell, they could have given him a good tasing and sent him on his way ... TO JAIL! Of course they're getting publicity and goodwill that will outweigh the cost of the room and the reward, but still, Nice Time Nice Time, we'll shut up now.

Now we all know the key to solving homelessness for a couple of days is for guys like Hartman to get themselves on TV, and the rest will just have to hope that some asshole Hawaiian legislator doesn't smash all their belongings.

[ Atlanta Journal-Constitution / HuffPo ]