By Ethan Forman
DANVERS — Crime did not pay for the thief or thieves who broke into an SUV at the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort Halloween night and made off with and then threw away a Connecticut businessman's laptop briefcase containing $4,000, his passport, credit cards, checks and documents, police said.
Honesty did pay for a 37-year-old Brazilian truck driver from Tewksbury who spotted the valise along Route 1 south Saturday around 9 a.m.
The driver tracked the man down and returned it, cash, credit cards and all.
Jonas Neto's efforts netted a reward of $1,500, police Sgt. Robert Bettencourt and Neto said.
"The stupid idiots who stole it didn't look through it very well," Bettencourt said.
"I was never going to do that," said Neto when he was asked why he didn't just keep the money. "I know when I (lie) down, I'm not going to sleep well knowing I took someone else's money."
The briefcase's owner was as surprised as he was gratified to get his belongings back.
"Never did I think it would be recovered the next day," said Blaine Athorn about how Neto tracked him down.
After finding the case, Neto tried a number on a business card, and when he got an answering machine, he called his wife and asked her to go online to look up Athorn's home phone from the address on some checks.
Athorn said his wife called him and told him: "You are not going to believe it."
By then, Athorn had left the Ferncroft, but the two arranged to meet at the Sheraton Colonial off Exit 42 of Interstate 95 in Wakefield.
"If there is any type of karma or fate," Athorn said, "... the criminals ... got nothing and the guy who expected nothing got a nice reward."
Bettencourt said someone broke a window on Athorn's 2007 Cadillac Escalade between 6 and 10 p.m. Friday and basically stole the man's life: a briefcase with important contracts and documents containing his Social Security number.
Athorn, who owns a training company and travels to Beverly about every two to three weeks, canceled his credit cards, but was beside himself and braced to be a victim of identity theft.
Athorn uses a laptop case as a briefcase and stores only files and documents in the main compartment.
Failing to find a laptop, the thief chucked the briefcase onto Route 1 south, between Interstate 95 and Route 62.
"I saw a light just hanging on the back of my truck," said Neto, who drives for Northeast Nursery in Peabody. "I pulled over to fix it, and I saw a briefcase with papers."
He found Athorn's valuables in a zippered side compartment as he looked for his contact information.
"I (didn't) count the money because it wasn't mine," Neto said.
The pair wondered if it might have been kids out looking for a laptop, not realizing what was really inside.
"We were talking about it should have been some kids, because the briefcase is just like a laptop box," Neto said.
"You are a very rare individual," Athorn told Neto. "He said, 'I don't think so, I just did what was right and to be an example for my family and my children.'"
Neto said he has a daughter.
Neto said he went back to the spot Monday and picked up some more papers, which he plans to mail back to Athorn, who said the contracts inside were just as precious to him.
"Crime doesn't pay," Athorn said, "but honesty does."
