New Jersey college football players "caught" being honest

WAYNE, N.J. Four New Jersey college football players are proving that honesty is the best policy, CBS New York reports.

The students, from William Paterson University, were praised and rewarded after they mistakenly broke into a convenience store to buy sunglasses and batteries, then left cash on the counter when no employees were around.

WCBS reporter Steve Langford reported that the honest customers were caught on surveillance video walking into Buddy's Small Lots in Wayne, N.J., Sunday night. The story was actually closed when the customers walked in, but the lock malfunction and the door was open.

The video shows the shoppers walking into the stare and calling for a clerk who never appears. After pulling cash out on the counter, the men are then seen "digging in for change, because he tells us later that he was paying tax" Marci Lederman, director of operations for Buddy's Small Lots, told 1010 WINS.

Thomas James, one of the students, said he didn't know why at first the store's owner wanted to meet with them.

"My heart dropped," James said, according to CBS New York. "I'm like, 'Are we in trouble?'"

The Associated Press reports the football players each got $50 gift certificates.