Donations For Homeless Man Who Returned $42,000 He Found In A Backpack EXCEED OVER $70,000

What would you have done??? 

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Life-changing: Ethan Whittington, left, has helped raise more than $60,000 to help Good Samaritan Glen James

A homeless man who returned a backpack containing $40,000 in cash and travelers checks has been rewarded by well-wishers who have donated more than $70,000 to help him.

Former Boston courthouse employee Glen James had fallen on hard times, but said he would not have tried to keep any of the money he found at the weekend.

After hearing about his story a Virginia man set up a Go Fund Me website which has raised thousands to help Mr James in just one day. 

'It started with wanting to help a someone in a small way, and now we can help them in a large way,' Ethan Whittington, who set up the site, said.

After reading about Mr James's good deed, the 27-year-old started the donation page on Monday afternoon.

The accounts manager had initially intended to raise $50,000 but that goal was achieved within a day of the site going live.

As more people heard of Mr James's story, more money rolled in, with a further $10,000 being raised in just a few hours on Wednesday morning.

'It's a good amount of money to get your feet off the ground,' Mr Whittington told the Boston Globe. 'We’ve all been in that situation when we’ve lost something.'

He spoke to Mr James for the first time yesterday and is planning to travel to Boston to meet him and discuss the best way for him to use the money. 

On an update on the donation site, Mr Whittington said: 'Donations just keep pouring in. I have had people willing to donate computers, clothes, food, etc. I am also speaking with a few folks about the possibility of a house or apartment.'

The initial fundraising goal has been raised from $50,000 to $250,000 in the hope that it can be used to buy Mr James a house and get him back on his feet.

He added that Mr James was overwhelmed by the support and keen for advice on how to make the best use of the fund.

The homeless man, who stays at a shelter in the city, said he has been offered so much money on the street this week that he has finally been able to open a bank account. 

Glen James was honored by Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis on Monday and thanked for an 'extraordinary show of character and honesty'

The backpack found by Mr James contained $2,400 in cash and $39,500 in American Express Travelers Cheques, plus Chinese passports and other personal papers

Mr Whittington said that Mr James was concerned about the publicity surrounding the money being offered to him however.

When he handed in the bag Mr James, who has been homeless since 2005, said even if he were desperate he wouldn't have kept ‘even a penny.’

He was honored by Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis on Monday and given a special citation and thanked for an ‘extraordinary show of character and honesty.’

Mr James found the backpack at the South Bay Mall in the city's Dorchester neighborhood on Saturday evening.

He flagged down a police officer and handed it over. Inside the backpack was $2,400 in U.S. currency, almost $40,000 in traveler's checks, Chinese passports and other personal papers.

Overwhelmed: Glen James has become the center of attention since carrying out a good deed at the weekend

The man who lost it told workers at a nearby Best Buy store at the mall and they called police.

Officers then brought the backpack's owner to a nearby police station and returned his property after confirming it belonged to him.

Authorities said that the backpack's owner didn't want his identity made public, but that he was a Chinese student who was visiting another student in Boston.

Mr James's story is similar to that of a homeless man in Kansas City, Missouri, who received more than $175,000 in donations after he returned a diamond engagement ring to its rightful owner in February.

Sarah Darling and her husband were so taken with Billy Ray Harris' act of kindness that they set up an online fundraising page on giveforward.com which raised more than $175,000 for the homeless man who had regularly been sleeping under a bridge.

Publicity around Mr Harris's change of fortune also helped him reconnect with his estranged family in Texas, where he was originally from.

Earlier in the week a police spokeswoman said Mr James, who didn't give his age, is staying at a city homeless shelter and that many people had expressed interest in helping him since hearing about his good deed.

The Good Samaritan said in his statement that he worked as a file clerk in the Boston municipal court system for 13 years, but lost his job and became homeless after problems with his boss.

Mr James said it would be difficult for him to hold down a job because he suffers from Meniere's disease, which the Mayo Clinic describes as an inner ear disorder that causes episodes of vertigo.

An employee from the Dorchester Best Buy, seen here, contacted police and told them a customer had reported missing a backpack containing a 'large sum of money'

He said he didn't want to be a burden to his relatives and that people at the shelter helped him.  Mr James gets food stamps and panhandles to make money to do laundry, to pay for transportation and buy other ‘odds and ends,’ he said.

On Monday, he also thanked the strangers who have given him spare change on the street.

‘It's just nice to have some money in one's pocket so that as a homeless man I don't feel absolutely broke all the time,’ he said.