Steve Martin Praises "Honest" Good Samaritan Who Returned His Wallet

Comedian expressed his gratitude on Twitter to the mysterious stranger who managed to save him from canceling out his credit cards yesterday

By Josh Grossberg Jul 03, 2013 4:10 PMTags
Steve Martin, Silver FoxesCharles Eshelman/FilmMagic

Call it Steve Martin's Pennsylvania story.

The wild and crazy funnyman was in the city of Wilkes-Barre Tuesday when he ended up losing his wallet shortly before he was due to perform with The Steep Canyon Rangers featuring Edie Brickell.

Lucky for him it wasn't a dirty rotten scoundrel but rather a kind local who found the wallet and returned it to the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts before he was set to go on.

"An honest man is found in Wilkes-Barre!" Thank you, sir!" he tweeted.

Will Beekman, the Kirby's director of programming, told the Scranton Times-Tribune that a mystery man called the box office that morning to report that Martin dropped his wallet apparently while bicycling around downtown.

"I think everyone's original thought was it was some sort of a joke. But just to be safe, we asked the tour manager," Beekman told the paper.

After the tour manager subsequently invited the stranger down to the box office, the 67-year-old thesp insisted on meeting him to express his gratitude.

"Steve got the chance to thank him personally," noted Beekman, adding that they never got the stranger's name. "It's just a feel-good story. It's nice to know there's good people out there."

No word whether the man got a reward, but Martin was sure glad to get his credit cards and driver's license back. During his band's bluegrass show later that evening. he also gave the man another shout-out from the stage.

"I had a great bit of fortune in your city today. Did you see this news? That is a slow news day," the banjo-playing comedian told the crowd. "I didn't even have a joke for him. I said, 'Oh, thank you. So thank you Wilkes-Barre. My impression of Wilkes-Barre is everyone is 100 percent honest, all of the time."

The Planes, Trains and Automobiles star just finished up the latest leg of his summer tour with the Rangers and Brickell. They're scheduled to kick off another string of dates on July 19 at Park City, Utah's Deer Valley Ski Resort

In the meantime, Martin continues to entertain fans with his never-ending dry wit on Twitter.

"Second leg of summer tour results are in: I timed my socks and underwear to a T! Not one wasted packing niche!" he tweeted yesterday.

Though our favorite has to be this: "Jigsaw puzzles are completed by agents and managers, yet feeling of accomplishment is the same."