Good karma

[Gob]

Two days after a well-wisher set up a fund to help the Boston homeless man who returned a backpack containing $42,000, more than $105,000 has been raised.

The GoFundMe wesbite was started by a Virginia accounts manager who felt compelled to help Glen James when he heard about his Good Samaritan act.

Since it was started on Monday afternoon, more than 4,000 people have gone to the fund, donating in excess of $105,000 by Thursday lunchtime.

Ethan Whittington said when he started the fund he expected to raise a couple of hundred dollars, and has been pleasantly shocked by the huge response.



'I didn't expect what we've received. I'm ecstatic about it,' the accounts manager told NBC News.

The 27-year-old spoke to Mr James for the first time on Tuesday in a conversation he described as 'awesome'.

'To do something for somebody and you don't even know them, and you see pictures of them, you hear great things about them, and then to finally get to talk to them, is great,' he said.

Mr James, a former Boston courthouse employee who has been homeless since 2005, has also moved by the generosity of strangers.

When he handed over the backpack he found at the weekend, he told police even if he was desperate he wouldn't have kept ‘even a penny'.

'It started with wanting to help a someone in a small way, and now we can help them in a large way,' Mr Whittington said.

He had initially intended to raise $50,000 but when that goal was achieved within a day of the site going live he raised it to $250,000 in the hope that the fund will be able to buy Mr James a house and get him back on his feet.

[Lord Jim]

[dales]

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