After finding a wallet with $980 in cash and no identification in the South Shore Plaza parking garage, three Milton teens admitted there was a moment when they were tempted to keep it.

“A lot of my friends ask me ‘why didn’t you keep it,'” said Bridget Hoey.

But Hoey, Ava O’Mahony and Lilly Goode, all 13, decided that much money would be missed, and tracked down a police officer and turned it over to him.

And the owner of the wallet, Maureen DeLuca of Mansfield, was indeed missing the money.

“My heart just dropped,” when she realized she didn’t have the wallet, DeLuca recalled. “That was my car payment and my bill money.”

A former high school teacher, DeLuca got to thank the three teens personally during a ceremony at Braintree Town Hall on Thursday, where the girls were commended for their actions. She hugged each girl several times.

Read the full story in The Patriot Ledger: www.patriotledger.com/news/20160715/3-milton-girls-find-and-return-wallet-with-980-cash