Homeless Man Discovers Forgotten Bank Account With Cop's Help.

Cop and case worker help homeless man living in a cardboard box find forgotten bank account - with enough social security benefits in it to get him his own HOUSE

A homeless man who has been living in a cardboard box in downtown Tampa, Florida, for over three years may soon have a modest-sized apartment and a pension check coming in every month, police said.

For three years, John Helinski's home was a cardboard box at a Tampa Bay bus stop.

The 62-year-old had all of his personal identification stolen - so struggled to apply for a place at a homeless shelter.

ith the help of a cop and homeless shelter case manager, John Helinski, 62, discovered a forgotten bank account that has been collecting Social Security disability benefits for years, he told ABC News today.

Helinski is looking forward to having a place of his own to call "home" and thankful for the help he has received, he added

But when a cop and his case manger looked into his past, they found a previously lost bank account with money and enough social security benefits to buy his own house.

Tampa Police Department Officer Daniel McDonald and Helinski’s case manager, Charles Inman of Drug Abuse and Comprehensive Coordinating Office Inc. (DACCO), have spent the past few weeks trying to help Helinski locate his personal identification documents to get him into housing, Officer McDonald said.

“John came to the DACCO Community Housing Solutions Center last December when it first opened,” McDonald said.

Inman, he added, asked him to help with Helinski’s case because all Helinski’s personal identifying documents and ID were stolen and lost while he was out on the streets.

“As a homeless liaison officer, the bread and butter of my work often involves hopping department to department trying to help homeless people find the ID they need in order to get things like work and housing,” McDonald said.

After the amazing discovery, he told ABC Action News: 'I just managed on my own. Sleeping underneath the benches there and no one would see me.

DACCO Case Manager Charles Inman told the Florida station: 'He needed to have an identification, but we couldn't get an identification without a birth certificate.

'There was no other option to succeed. You know, the thought of putting a 62-year-old man back on the street wasn't acceptable. 

He then recruited the help of Tampa Police officer Dan McDonald.

'I enjoy it because I like a challenge,' he said. 'We first had to figure out that we needed a consular record of foreign birth or something like that.'

Helinski was born in Poland, but he is an American citizen, has a driver's licence and a social security number. 

Then, as they kept digging into his background, Helsinki visited a Tampa bank branch and discovered an old account.

It hadn't been touched for years, so social security had built up, and he even had cash.

'At that time, it was Landmark Bank. Then it became Bank of America,' he said. 

'I guess I'm exhilarated, excited, you know.'

Helinksi is now looking for permanent accommodation. His search is focused on a small apartment

With his consular birth certificate and temporary ID, we went to the Social Security office, and I just walked up to them and said, ‘This man used to have benefits, can you help us?’” McDonald said.

It turned out Helinski had always been receiving benefits, and he just wasn’t aware because he lost his debit card and had no access to his bank account, McDonald said.

McDonald then drove Helinski to his old bank, where they found his account, "which had still been collecting pension money over time,” he said. “And since he now had his temporary ID card, he could get access to the account.”

Helinski is still at the DACCO Community Housing Solutions Center, but McDonald said Helinski would likely be able to get permanent housing soon.

Though Helinski did not want to disclose the amount in his bank account, McDonald said he was receiving enough in monthly pension payments to have enough to pay for rent for a modest apartment and food without having to work.

Helinski's case manager Inman added he and McDonald are extremely happy for their client.

"This situation looked really difficult, and I wasn’t sure how it was going to end up," Inman told ABC News today. "If it failed, it meant we’d put a 62-year-old man on the street, and Officer McDonald and I were not OK with that."

McDonald is one of few police officers whose work revolves around helping homeless people in their assigned areas.

“We’re uniformed cops with police cars, but we want homeless people to trust us,” he said. “Our job is not to arrest someone. It’s to help them. Homeless people are still accountable to the law, but they’re now starting to see we can be trusted, and this new model and field of policing is gaining popularity very quickly, I think.”