Lost-and-found story has happy ending

Friday, April 13, 2012

By ERIC HAMILTON

Neighbors Editor

Have you ever lost anything expensive or important to you?

If you have, chances are you vividly remember that sinking feeling and the thought that you’ll never get it back. Many of us have at least one story of how we lost our wallet, keys, important papers or something otherwise irreplaceable. We’d like to think someone would find the item, turn it in to someone and we’d be reunited with it. That doesn’t always happen. But it’s awesome when it does.

One time last year, I lost my wallet. I had gone to Giant Eagle to grab a few groceries before they closed for the night. I was wearing shorts with no pockets, so had to carry my car keys, cell phone and wallet, all the while putting the groceries on the checkout.

I paid for the food, loaded the bags into the cart and headed for the car. I made the 15-minute trip home - by that time it was about 10 p.m. and the store was closing.

Before I got out of the car, I looked on the seat to grab my wallet. It wasn’t there. I went on a scavenger hunt in my vehicle to find it — no luck. This was not good.

I’ll skip to the good news. I drove back to the store and combed the area where I parked for the wallet. After not finding it, I desperately checked the carts, which were all bunched together outside the store’s doors. Needle in a haystack, I thought.

But I found my wallet in one of the carts nestled in the part where little kids sit. I looked inside and nothing was missing. What a relief!

I received an email from someone who also recently experienced that panicked feeling of losing something, followed by the joy of getting it back. Here is what she wrote:

Dear Eric,

Since I’ve been reading since day 1, I feel I know you. I want to tell you a short story about Canfield. Friday, my Kindle dropped out of the side pocket of my car door in the parking lot of the IGA. I didn’t realize until about two hours later.

I called the Canfield police — no Kindle. I called IGA — someone had found my Kindle and taken it into IGA. Canfield is a great place to live. How many places do you know where this would happen?

It’s these kind of stories that make you thankful to live in communities where people still care about others. We need more people like the one who turned in that Kindle.

I know they’re out there in your town, too. Feel free to share more stories like this one. Maybe we’ll even start a feature in Neighbors where we can celebrate this kind of good news.