While walking near a golf course, a Denver middle school cross country runner and his two schoolmates found what could have been a goldmine: More than $1,500 worth of Colorado Rockies tickets, bundled together neatly and ready for use or sale. Yet, instead of cashing in on their good fortune, the three teenagers decided it was more important to do the right thing, launching a full scale search to find the rightful owners of the missing seats.

As reported by Denver NBC affiliate 9News.com, Denver (Colo.) St. Vincent de Paul Middle School students Alex Mastro, Eamon Duffy and Ben Capra were alerted to a stack of tickets in the road near Wellshire Golf Club on Monday when a jogger ran past and asked if the tickets she had seen near a bush were the property of the boys.

When the trio walked over to check out what she was talking about, they discovered a total of 42 tickets, broken down into groups of three tickets to 14 different home games.

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The tickets in the pack weren't just normal seats, either. According to 9News, all of the tickets were just rows behind home plate, with face values of $38 per ticket, a total value of nearly $1,600 ($1,596 to be exact). For many teens, the found seats would have been quite literally a ticket to a summer of fun. For St. Vincent de Paul runner Alex Mastro and his friends, they presented the need for a search: All the three wanted was to find the seats' rightful owners.

After failing in an attempt at a nearby neighbor and coming up empty on other clues, the teens turned to 9News, which got in contact with the Rockies, who then tracked down the season ticket holder who owned the seats. As a result, the Colorado boys plan to hand over the tickets on the coming Monday evening.

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Clearly, the commitment of the teenagers to finding the rightful owners to a set of lost tickets speaks to their character, and also provides a powerful reminder that not all teen athletes are out for their own best interest. As these Colorado youngsters proved, sometimes the right thing truly is more important, and more rewarding in a personal way.

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