SEEING THE BAG AS HALF FULL.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

VAN NUYS - If only the other person who came across the black pouch filled with cash had the conscience of Rogelio Leon.

Leon found the bag Monday in the parking lot of a Washington Mutual Bank and was stunned to find it filled with bills - big bills.

``When I opened it, I see all these bills, all hundreds,'' Leon, 54, recalled Wednesday at a news conference where he was thanked by the man who lost the money. ``I think, 'Oh, so much!'''

But Leon said he never considered keeping the money. He didn't even count it - if he had, he would have discovered $7,000.

Instead, he took it into the Washington Mutual branch to give to the bank's manager, and then turned it over to police as the manager instructed.

``This is probably a very good indication of the type of people we have in Los Angeles,'' Los Angeles Police Department Detective Mike Coblentz said. ``And thank goodness we do.''

That's only half true. Someone had found the pouch earlier, when it contained $15,000 Hugo Salazar had withdrawn from the bank to cover the cost of an unspecified surgery he planned in his native Chile.

Salazar wasn't hard to track - his name and phone number were in the pouch. When police called him, he confirmed that he'd lost a pouch of money.

``I'm happy at least some of the money was found,'' Salazar said in Spanish through a translator. ``But I have to postpone the operation.''

Salazar, 76, got the money when he sold his house.

He had $20,000 deposited in a Washington Mutual account, and he wanted to withdraw it to be used for the surgery. Because of Washington Mutual's $5,000 withdrawal limit, he had to go to four different branches to get the money. When he arrived at the fourth branch, he realized that he no longer had the pouch.

Without the money, he will have to postpone the surgery, maybe by as much as two years, he said.

Police doubt they'll ever find the rest of the money.

Leon of Reseda said he could have used the money he found but never considered keeping it. In September, while working as a security guard at City National Bank in Commerce, he was attacked at the bank and suffered back, leg and arm injuries. He's been on disability ever since.

``It's a mixed bag,'' Lt. Steven Harer said. ``Who knows who else had access to (the money) before Mr. Leon?''

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Panorama City resident Hugo Salazar, 76, right, thanks Rogelio Leon, 54, of Reseda, on Wednesday for returning a bag of money Salazar dropped outside a Washington Mutual branch. Less than half of Salazar's original $15,000 was left when Leon found it.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer