Stanton Hit-Run Victim Gets $40 the Hard Way

Vu Nguyen was $40 richer Friday, but it hardly seemed worth what he had to go through.

The 13-year-old Stanton boy was peddling his bicycle to school shortly before 8 a.m. when he was knocked to the pavement by a passing truck. When he regained consciousness, he found $40 lying on his chest and the truck gone.

Orange County sheriff’s investigators don’t know if the driver of the truck left the money, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson.

The eighth-grader walked the remaining two blocks to St. Polycarp Catholic School on East Chapman Avenue and told what had happened to him. His parents, paramedics and sheriff’s deputies were called, said Robert J. Clark, the school principal.

Clark said Vu did not appear to be scratched or bruised but was taken to Midwood Community Hospital in Stanton for an examination. “He knocked his head a little bit when he was knocked down, but he checked right back into school. He’s got a hard head,” Clark said.

A passing student told sheriff’s deputies that Vu was struck by a blue Toyota pickup truck, Olson said.

Investigators might examine the money for fingerprints, but most likely they will turn the cash over to Vu, Sheriff’s Lt. Tom Conner said.