PETERSBURG, Va. -- Alesha Evans said she was petrified leaving Walmart in Petersburg on Christmas Eve.
She was there buying a few last-minute gifts for her children. She was also carrying the final payment for her month's rent.
As she was walking out, she stopped to speak with Deputy Petersburg Police Chief Travis Christian.
"She's explaining to me she had fallen on some hard times," Christian recalled.
As she walked out the door she said she had her wallet on her wrist. Inside the wallet was $500.
But when she arrived home, she quickly discovered her wallet was gone.
Deputy Chief Christian was in the parking lot when Evans returned.
"Why [is] she driving so fast through the parking lot," he thought. "She exits the vehicle, comes to me, immediately I could see she was emotional and said I have a problem."
Christian told her to go find a manager. Inside Walmart she was told someone found and returned her wallet.
Inside the wallet, her $500.
"They told me a lady named Miss Rebecca turned in my wallet," she recalled.
Rebecca Brown, a 14-year Walmart employee, said she found the wallet while on her 15-minute break.
She took it to customer service.
"I would want somebody to do the same thing for me," she said.
Petersburg Police Chief Kenneth Miller gave Brown a "Community Class Act Award."
"I feel like I was her Guardian Angel right there," Brown said.
