Man gets wallet back after nearly 40 years
LAKE ARIEL, Pa. --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.
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.
"I had a real full head of hair back then," Schmitt, 57, of Lake Ariel, said
Tuesday.
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 Healey.
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.
"They're good, honest people out there," Schmitt said.
The wallet also had photos of Schmitt's high-school girlfriends and a
dry-cleaning receipt.
"It makes me wonder if I still got some dry cleaning out there. I don't know,"
Schmitt said.
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.
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