Wallet left in Utah gas station in 1967 returned to Pa. man

Published: February 1, 2006 | 3413th good news item since 2003

An antiques dealer 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.

“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 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.

“They’re good, honest people out there,” Schmitt said.

The wallet also had photos of Schmitt’s high-school girlfriends from Wissahickon High School in suburban Philadelphia 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.

Published in Found and Honesty
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