ORONO – When Cindy Stevens of Hermon realized Wednesday that $4,500 was missing from her purse, she thought she would never see the money again.

She was wrong.

The cash, wrapped in a rubber band, had fallen out of Stevens’ purse and flown onto Route 2 in Hermon as she drove to work. She was on her way to deposit the money to pay for a cruise vacation she was planning to take next month with her husband, Keith Stevens. The cash may have fallen to the running board of her vehicle as she entered it, she surmised.

It wasn’t until she stopped to buy a cup of coffee in Bangor that Cindy Stevens realized the money was missing.

“I had no clue where it went,” Stevens said. “I had less than five bucks to pay for my coffee. I was very sick to my stomach. I was a nervous wreck. I knew I’d never see the money again.”

Meanwhile, Stevens’ next-door neighbor, Orono firefighter Kevin Peary, had stopped on Route 2 to pick up a bundle he’d seen fly off a car. He just happened to see the flash of green as he headed home after a shift.

“I thought it was trash coming off the vehicle,” Peary said Friday.

When he realized what he had found, Peary called police and waited for Sgt. Bill Laughlin of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department to arrive before counting up the money.

“I knew it was probably a couple thousand,” Peary said.

In Bangor, Stevens reported the money missing to police. She had already called her husband, but his search for the cash was fruitless.

“I said, ‘Nobody’s going to turn that in,'” Stevens said.

Stevens agonized all day at work, so embarrassed that she told only one co-worker. Adding to her pain was the fact that Stevens is the assistant branch manager for Bangor Savings Bank on Hogan Road.

“Luckily, I’m not a teller,” she said.

Then on Friday morning, Stevens got the good news. A Bangor police officer called to tell her about a story he had seen in that day’s Bangor Daily News about a sum of money that had been turned in to Hermon police.

Stevens called Laughlin and described the money, $4,500 in denominations of $50 and $100 bills wrapped in a rubber band. The sergeant knew he was talking to the rightful owner.

“Just listening to you on the other end of the phone made the day,” Laughlin said Friday at the Orono Fire Department, where Peary met Stevens to hand over the money.

The two neighbors hugged, and Stevens gave Peary $500 as a reward for his exceptional neighborliness.

“For me to give you $500 means a lot to me,” Stevens said, choking up. “I wish I could give you more.”

Peary accepted the money, reluctantly. He planned to cook dinner for his fellow firefighters Friday night and hoped they wouldn’t get wind of his cash reward.

“They’ll probably hit me up for something better than stroganoff,” Peary said.

Stevens also planned to give $100 to the co-worker who convinced her to report the missing money to police. She just never thought she would be so lucky, she said.

“I’m so happy that Kevin is my neighbor,” Stevens said.

BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS

Cindy Stevens of Hermon offers a reward to Orono firefighter Kevin Peary after he returned $4,500 that fell off Stevens’ vehicle in Hermon on Wednesday. At center is Bill Laughlin, a constable-deputy with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department.