Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
TWO BASHFUL Wakefield-Marenisco students, neither of which were looking for attention regarding their good deed, are being awarded the Distinguished Citizen Award by Michigan State Police Wakefield Post Commander Don Horn as Trooper Jerry Mazurek, far left, looks on Tuesday in Chris Tweiten's Social Studies class. The youth on the left is Mike Sibley, Jr., while the young man on the right is Austin Ahonen. The young men turned in a tourists wallet last year without even opening it to see what the contents were, preserving the $280 cash the owner had lost and all his credit cards and identification.
By IAN MINIELLY
Wakefield - Last year a tourist was in the area for a weekend of snowmobiling fun. Spending money in motels, eating in restaurants, paying trail fees and buying gasoline. Only the tourist lost his wallet and had no idea where it was. The man from Milwaukee called and cancelled his credit cards, lamented the nearly 300 in cash lost, and was ready to begin the process of getting new identity when the state police notified him his wallet was turned in.
Unbeknownst to the unnamed Milwaukee tourist, two Wakefield-Marenisco students - Austin Ahonen and Mike Sibley Jr. - were crossing Sunday Lake on their own snowmobiles when they happened across a wallet in the snow. According to Michigan State Police Wakefield Post Commander Don Horn; two youths walked into the post last year, turned in a wallet they found on Sunday Lake to the desk sergeant, did not leave their names and left. The guys in the post had no idea who the kids were and had to do some investigative work to discover their names after events fully unfolded with the owner.
The post contacted the owner from the identification in the wallet and informed him the contents of the wallet appeared intact, including $280 in cash. The owner, according to Horn, could not believe the money and contents were still in his wallet and the kids did not just steal it, saying he would have never received his wallet if he had lost it in Milwaukee.
Trooper Jerry Mazurek said, "We recognize as the State Police this goes above and beyond what most people would do." Mazurek said after the awards this kind of behavior by the two young men is a testament to the kind of kids in the Upper Peninsula and the guy from Milwaukee would tell people about his experience while visiting.
Horn told both boys in a few years they should consider stopping by the post when they are ready to enter the workforce because the State Police is always "looking for individuals with class and integrity." It took Lansing a year to process the paperwork but both young men were awarded the Distinguished Citizen Award.
