Shaquille O’Neal once found David Beckham’s wallet, and his reaction was ‘surprising’

David Beckham once had an unexpected message after losing his wallet.

By a lucky chance the iconic footballer’s wallet was picked up by none other than basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal.

But the basketball player wasn’t going to let the opportunity to joke around with Beckham pass by, the Mirror reports.

O’Neal messaged Beckham telling him he had found his wallet, and jokingly demanded an enormous sum of money for its safe return.

The pair have been for a number of years since they met when Beckham was with LA Galaxy in Los Angeles, California.

Shaq shared that it had crossed his mind to keep the cash in the wallet, but once he realised who it belonged to he changed his mind.

Shaquille O’Neal -Credit:Getty Images for Warner Bros. Di
“I was walking one day in Beverly Hills and I found a wallet,” the 53-year-old recalled during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

“Usually when I find wallets, I just take all the money out and I just throw them,” he joked. “But this was a nice wallet.”

Shaw then noticed Beckham’s ID inside the wallet, and decided to play a prank on his friend.

“First I played a joke,” the American said.

“I was like, ‘I have your wallet, it’s going to cost you a million dollars to get it back’. But he knew it was me. [Beckham said] ‘Shaq, stop playing’. I was like ‘Dave, I found your wallet’. The funny thing is he [Beckham] said, ‘There was some money in this wallet, you know what happened?’ And I was like, ‘Nope.'”

Shaq retired from elite basketball in 2012 and is recognised as one of the greater players of the sport.

Towering at 7ft 1in, he helped the Lakers to secure four NBA titles including three with the Lakers during the Kobe Bryant era, and one with the Miami Heat.

Beckham retired from professional football in 2013, and has recently been finally confirmed as receiving a knighthood in the king’s birthday honours list.