She Found a Lost Paycheck on the Sidewalk. What She Did Next Went Viral

When Jen Ewing stumbled upon a lost check, she didn’t just return it — she inspired thousands online with her thoughtful gesture and plans to pay it forward

For Jen Ewing, a simple walk became a moment that would capture the hearts of thousands and remind a community of the power of doing the right thing.

“I was on my morning walk, and I spotted this check on the sidewalk, and I thought to myself, ‘What if my name was on it?’ But it wasn’t,” Ewing details in a now-viral TikTok video, recalling the moment that set everything in motion.

Instead of ignoring the slip of paper, she decided to embark on what she calls “the long trek to find the owner,” motivated in part by a conversation she’d recently had with an Uber driver about the dangers of check fraud.

Ewing explains that the driver had shared his own story of checks being stolen from his mailbox and the elaborate lengths thieves will go to, including a process called check washing.

“I always just remember that Uber driver and thinking, well, anybody could have picked up this check and maybe did something nefarious,” Ewing tells PEOPLE. “So I have to get this check back to the rightful owner. And that’s what I did.”

The check, issued by a local business to an employee, felt like more than just a piece of paper — it was someone’s hard-earned money. Ewing says she didn’t know if the recipient even realized it was missing, but she felt compelled to act quickly.

“I just figured I would just go in and do it personally,” she explains of heading for the local restaurant it came from. “I thought the quickest turnaround would probably just be to show up with it.”

After waiting for the restaurant to open, Ewing walked in, check in hand, expecting a simple, polite “thank you.”

“I was not expecting the reaction that I got from the owner of the check and the employees in there, like how excited they were,” Ewing tells PEOPLE. “Their reaction was actually everything. It just makes you want to help people again, because they were so appreciative.”

The gratitude didn’t end with words. Ewing left the restaurant with a free hot dog, a small but memorable token of thanks. “So that was great,” she says with a laugh. But the story didn’t stop there.

Ewing, who is self-employed, admits that the unexpected attention — and the small amount of money earned from TikTok’s creator rewards — gave her an idea for a follow-up act of generosity.

“I made a little bit of cash off of that video. So I’m going to go back as soon as that money hits my account and then match the check that I found on the ground and give it to them,” she shares. “If it wasn’t for him or losing the check, I would just never even have made a little bit of money. And I appreciate the money that I made.”

For the restaurant owner, the return of the check was a relief. “He said he realized that he had lost it. He didn’t know where, he was concerned that someone else would pick it up,” Ewing recalls.

The business had already stopped payment on the check, but the owner’s happiness at having it safely returned was unmistakable. “He was just so happy about it,” she says.

The experience also had a profound personal impact on Ewing. “With everything happening in the country, I just needed that. I can’t control anything that’s happening right now, but I can control helping somebody and just showing some kind of kindness,” she tells us.

Ewing never expected her story to resonate so widely. “I had no idea,” she says of her video’s viral success. “They loved that I got the hot dog and they loved his reaction, how genuine and happy he was.” The comments on her TikTok were filled with people sharing their own stories of returning lost items and the joy it brought them.

The experience reaffirmed Ewing’s belief in her community. “Where we live, we have a really good sense of community here, and it just went to show me that doing what I did and not only him getting excited, but his co-workers were excited about it, too,” she says of her Washington town. “It just made me realize that’s why I like living here.”

Now Ewing is focusing on plans to return to the restaurant, this time to pay it forward once again.