A young adult male in a residential neighborhood, wearing a black t-shirt with dark jeans and a silver chain necklace, holding a green plastic bag on the sidewalk. 2:05

The teen who returned a purse and left no name

Melina Marquez's Ring doorbell went off one night, and her aunt opened the door to a teenager holding a lost purse. more

He had found it in a shopping cart at a grocery store. The driver's license inside belonged to Melina's friend Eliana Martin, who used to live there and hadn't updated her address since moving out. The aunt took the purse, a little confused, and the teen left before anyone got his name.

A person in a cap and a necklace stands outdoors at night with trees behind them. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The night the purse came back, the teen who found it was gone before anyone got his name.

When Melina heard, she was shocked. She asked her aunt if she had gotten his name, and she hadn't. "I was like, oh my God, we have to find him," Melina says.

The women posted the doorbell video to social media, and lots of people in San Diego shared it. In the end, the Good Samaritan reached out on his own. He was Adrian Rodriguez, 17 years old.

Asked why he went out of his way, Adrian gives his mom the credit. "My mom's told me since I was little to always do the right thing even when no one's watching," he says. He had a second reason, too: "If I lost my stuff, I would want somebody to bring it back to me."

A young adult male in a residential neighborhood, wearing a black t-shirt with dark jeans and a silver chain necklace, holding a green plastic bag on the sidewalk. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Melina Marquez's Ring doorbell went off one night, and her aunt opened the door to a teenager holding a lost purse.

Nobody had a thing to give him at the door that night. Once he came forward, friends and family wanted to reward him too, so Melina and Eliana started a GoFundMe with a goal of $1,000. It passed $3,000.

"He could have just taken whatever was in the purse, you know, and he didn't," one of the women says. "He brought it back."