MORRISTOWN — It wouldn't take Chanti Carter-Rene long to figure out what to do with an extra $3,500 in her bank account.

The 29-year-old would put down money for a security deposit on an apartment, instead of moving in with her father.

But when the East Orange woman saw a wad of $100 bills sticking out of a Citibank envelope on a Morristown sidewalk last week, she just couldn't keep it.

"The guilt would kill me," she said. "I'm gonna feel guilty whenever I see it."

Two days before Christmas, Chris Gagnon, 50, withdrew $3,500 in cash from Citibank in downtown Morristown to pay off a bill. He slipped the envelope of money into his inside jacket pocket, without realizing it had a hole in it.

But when he returned to his home in Mendham about 15 minutes later, he realized the money had disappeared, he said.

“I’m in a panic," he recalled. "I'm calling the bank, I'm calling everyone.”

But the bank told him they hadn't seen the money, and Gagnon was beginning to lose hope of getting it back.

“I thought it was gone forever," said Gagnon. "I had literally written it off in my mind.”

Carter-Rene had made a trip to a post office during a break from her job as a Morris County probation officer when she saw the envelope.

Realizing that someone has lost a significant amount of money, she paused and briefly thought about what to do next.

"I really didn't think about it that long," she said, adding that she thought, "Someone is having a really bad day."

Carter-Rene decided to try and find the money's owner. When she returned to her job, she printed up signs with her contact information, asking if anyone had lost a large sum of money.

She planned to put signs up in front of a restaurant on Washington Street, where she first found the money. But she decided instead to leave the money and her business card with Citibank, in case the owner returned.

Meanwhile, Gagnon retraced his steps between his home and the bank, hoping he might find his lost cash.

When he got to the bank, he was overjoyed to learn someone had returned the money.

“I was just so grateful what a wonderful thing,” he said. “I think most people are more honest than we give them credit for.”

Soon after, Gagnon called Carter-Rene to express his gratitude.

"I said 'this is the fellow whose life you saved,'” he said. “I said 'I just wanted to thank you so much.'”

On Tuesday, Carter-Rene moved with her 2-year-old daughter, Angelina Rene, into her father's home in East Orange. She is waiting to save up enough money to move into a new apartment, hopefully in Bloomfield, she said.

Carter-Rene said she doesn't regret returning the money.

"I'd rather give the money back," she said. "His reaction...was better than keeping money that wasn't mine."

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