Tweeters help find lost woman, and more

Tweeters help find lost woman

Twitter is just a distraction for many, but one Irishwoman has the social network to thank for locating her senile mother last week. Joanne Mehaffey turned to Twitter when her mother, Diane, who has Alzheimer’s disease, failed to come home from a walk. She posted a picture of Diane and asked her followers to retweet; hundreds did. The elderly woman was eventually spotted eight miles from her home by Twitter user Christina McStravick. “My husband gives me a hard time for going on Twitter too much,” said McStravick. “He can’t do that anymore.”

Walmart employee returns $20,000

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After Bismark Mensah helped a customer load her car at the Seattle Walmart where he works, he noticed that she had left an envelope behind. The Ghanaian immigrant, 32, was used to finding lost or discarded items in customers’ carts, but nothing like what he found inside the envelope—$20,000, in cash. Mensah, who earns $9 an hour, didn’t think twice. He ran after Leona Wisdom’s car and handed it back right away. The supermarket worker refused to accept any kind of financial reward from Wisdom, and said keeping her money never occurred to him. “My conscience wouldn’t allow it,” he said.

A cancer patient fulfills a dream

A 7-year-old cancer patient from Atkinson, Neb., had a dream come true last week, when he scored a 69-yard touchdown run for his beloved University of Nebraska football team. Jack Hoffman, who has been battling brain cancer for two years, joined players for the final moments of the Cornhuskers’ spring exhibition game. Hoffman took a handoff from quarterback Taylor Martinez, zigzagged up the field, and scored the game’s final points. The boy’s father said the family was “very optimistic” about Jack’s prognosis. “Husker fans have been so incredible to Jack,” said Andy Hoffman.