Albuquerque officials celebrated Jose Nunez’s decision to return the money. He holds a plaque presented by Police Chief Mike Geier. They are flanked by Nunez’s parents, Carmen Romaniz and Jose Nunez Juarez.

Albuquerque officials celebrated Jose Nunez’s decision to return the money. He holds a plaque presented by Police Chief Mike Geier. They are flanked by Nunez’s parents, Carmen Romaniz and Jose Nunez Juarez.

Jose Nuñez Romaniz was on a mission to buy socks for his grandfather. He’d just helped him find the right ones online, after the elder man had no luck finding them in stores.

The 19-year-old Nuñez just needed to deposit money into his bank account to make the online purchase. When he tried, he made an astonishing find -- and what he did next has earned him praise and a bit of fame in New Mexico’s most populous city.

Nuñez drove to an ATM outside a Wells Fargo bank branch one Sunday morning just two minutes from his Albuquerque home, to make his deposit.

As he pulled his truck alongside the machine, he spotted a clear plastic bag on the ground. It was a “foot-long stack” of $50 and $20 bills, he said.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was, like, dreaming,” Nuñez told reporters. “I was just in shock. I was looking at myself and just thinking, ‘What should I do?’”

Nuñez said he never considered keeping the cash -- but all sorts of wild thoughts raced through his mind. Was this some kind of trick? Was someone going to pull up behind him and kidnap him? 

With the bank closed on that Sunday, Nuñez called Albuquerque police. Two officers arrived, and the teenager handed over the money.

The officers counted the cash back at their station: It totaled $135,000.

Albuquerque police understand the money was mistakenly left outside the ATM by a bank subcontractor that was meant to supply the machine with cash, Officer Simon Drobik said.

“This money could have made an incredible amount of difference in his life if he went down the other path, but he chose... the integrity path and did the right thing,” Drobik, a spokesman for the Albuquerque police, said.

When asked for comment about Nuñez’s actions Thursday, Wells Fargo spokesman Tony Timmons said he would defer to the vendor that services the ATMs. 

A message was left with that vendor, seeking comment. No reply was received by press time.

However, Nuñez’s integrity hasn’t gone unrewarded.

City officials feted him one Thursday in a ceremony outside Albuquerque’s police academy.

The police chief presented him with a plaque, and has invited Nuñez -- a Central New Mexico Community College student who intends to study criminal justice -- to apply for a job as a public service aide at the police department, Drobik said.

Albuquerque ESPN Radio 101.7 FM presented him with some signed sports memorabilia that the station had -- including a football autographed by former NFL and University of New Mexico linebacker Brian Urlacher.

The radio station threw in six season tickets for UNM football, said station president Joe O’Neill, who had heard about Nuñez’s story from a police acquaintance.

And at least three local businesses presented Nuñez with $500 each, with one of them -- a restaurant -- adding a $100 gift card, O’Neill said.

“It’s the coolest story. ... it’s unbelievable what the kid did,” O’Neill said.

In an interview with the radio station later Thursday, Nuñez thanked businesses and officials who were at the event, and told listeners how Sunday unfolded. He recalled police arriving “in like five minutes” after he called.

And yes, he did finish what he’d started for his grandfather.

“I went back home and finished my online shopping,” he said.

Nuñez’s parents immigrated from Mexico in the late 1990s. They once worked in farm fields picking onions. His father also spent years working as a dishwasher, cook and in construction. Now the family operates a small mattress sales business.

Nuñez just finished his first collegiate year. His childhood dream is to work as a crime scene investigator.