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| Billy Ray Harris at his patch, he said he doesn't think he deserves all the attention he's getting |
A homeless man set to get $US145,000 for returning a woman's diamond engagement ring is uncomfortable at the attention he got and worries for a world shocked by his honesty.
Sarah Darling accidentally dropped her diamond engagement ring into Billy Ray Harris' coin cup in Kansas City and he kept it safe and gave it back to her when she returned to his patch a few days later. Her grateful fiancé set up a website which has already raised $US145,000 for Mr Harris, who frequently begs on Kansas City's Country Club Plaza.
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| Harris returned the diamond engagement ring to Sarah |
Mr Harris, though grateful for the donations from strangers from around the world, is uncomfortable with all the attention his kind act has received but insists the ring simply wasn't his to keep.
"What I actually feel like is what has the world come to when a person returns something that don't belong to them and all this happens?," he said.
Speaking to a local TV crew, Mr Harris said he knew the ring had sentimental value.
"I could tell just how much it meant to you, the moment I held it up like that," he said to Ms Darling re-enacting for the cameras her reaction when he showed her that her ring wasn't lost.
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| Warm Embrace...Thank you Harris... |
News of the story has also led to Mr Harris being reunited with his family. His sister Robin saw him on the local TV news at her home in Texas and contacted the reporter on the story to help arrange a reunion with all of his siblings.
"Sixteen years later and we just now found out he's still living. I want him to come home, but I can't make him come home. But I want him to know we love him and we miss him", Robin said.
Mr Harris described the upcoming reunion with his family as "a gift" and even though he hasn't seen them in years he insists he and his sisters remain his best friends.
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This is the ring Sarah accidentally dropped into the coin cup. |
Mr Harris, who lives under a bridge, admits he doesn't think he deserve all the attention he's getting but he is now considering an offer to move in with his sister.
He doesn't want to be a burden and said he finds being a cause célèbre stressful.
"It's more stressful than what I'm doing right now", he said. "Does Tom Cruise have to be all that? I could never be an actor".
