Michelle Lewis (left), a police officer attached to the Elletson Road Police Station in Kingston, and Dhaima Brookes, legal secretary, are not ashamed of the fact that they handed over $1 million they stumbled across at an ATM in Portmore Mall Plaza. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Three months after legal secretary Dhaima Brookes and police officer Michelle Lewis made the news by returning $1 million they had found at an ATM, the women are adamant that, despite mixed responses from the public, they have no regrets.

In December, Brookes made the dazzling discovery at an ATM in the Portmore Mall - 10 stacks of $1,000 bills neatly packaged and begging for an owner. The money had been left there unwittingly by personnel from a security company who had been servicing the machine.

Brookes sought help from a woman who was standing at the ATM beside her, and as fate would have it, that woman, Michelle Lewis, was a policewoman who also shared Brookes' zeal for honesty.

Together, the women left the mall and made their report to the Waterford police in Portmore, St Catherine. As a result of the subsequent report published in The Gleaner of the women's exceptional honesty, they say they they have received both praise and put-downs from those who heard their story.

"Everywhere I go, people still call me Million-dollar Girl, Million-dollar Michelle, Million-dollar Police," Lewis said.

Brookes said that whenever she is being introduced by her friends, it is as 'the girl who found the million dollars'.

Mean reaction

But not everyone has been as approving of the women's actions. Some have been disagreeable even to the point of being mean. One very interesting story was shared by Brookes about how she heard one woman's opinion. Brookes was at the same machine where she had found the money, re-enacting the scene for a friend when the incident happened.

"This lady was there, she never knew it was me, but she was trying to eavesdrop in our conversation. She turn an say 'Dah lady deh nah nuh sense, she is an ediat'," Brookes recounted.

The women, though, hold no regrets when they consider the far-reaching implications of their actions.

Honesty more important

"Honestly speaking, I think about myself. I don't even think about the money, I think about me. I don't want nobody to look at me and say I'm dishonest or stupid," Brookes shared, noting that if she had taken the money, the same people who are criticising her now would have been criticising her for keeping the money.

For Lewis, her main intention is to leave an honest example for her one and only child, 19-year-old Javaugn Livingston.

"He said to me, 'Mommy, you know my friends dem tell me 'Don't come beg us even a dollar because your modda get a million dollars and hand it over'."

"I tell him, 'J, you shouldn't have to beg anyone anything. You must be satisfied with what you have and if ever you are faced with something like this, you make sure you do the right thing'."

andrew.wildes@gleanerjm.com