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Man gets wallet back after nearly 40 years

San Francisco Chronicle, AP News

Wednesday 1 February 2006, 5:06 pm
Keywords: Humor , News Articles

Associated Press

A man is being reacquainted with his past after a Utah family returned a wallet he lost at a gas station nearly 40 years ago.

Schmitt apparently lost the wallet at a gas station in Logan, Utah, in the spring of 1967, when he stopped to fill up his 1955 Austin Healy. The station's owner stashed it in a drawer, presumably hoping the person would come back.

Ted Nyman, of Logan, found it decades later while cleaning out his father-in-law's estate. He tracked Schmitt down through the Internet, and last week mailed the wallet 2,158 miles across the country.

The beige wallet still held $5 in cash, a traffic ticket, 8-cent airmail stamps and Doug Schmitt's freshman ID card from Utah State University. The wallet also had photos of Schmitt's high-school girlfriends and a dry-cleaning receipt.

As an antiques dealer, Schmitt is accustomed to digging through other people's attics for wartime letters and other personal histories. He never expected someone else to pore over his past.

"It's just so wonderful that people will take the time to research that, then return something to someone they don't even know," said his wife, Vickie Schmitt.