Man Gets His Wallet Back After 40 Years

A Pennsylvania man can't believe he finally has his wallet back - after he lost it at a Utah gas station nearly 40 years ago.

Doug Schmitt lost the wallet at a gas station in Logan, Utah, around the spring of 1967, when he stopped to fill up his 1955 Austin Healy. And now, nearly 40 years later, Schmitt has received it back. The wallet still held $5 in cash, a traffic ticket, 8-cent airmail stamps and Schmitt's ID card from Utah State University.

"I had a real full head of hair back then", Schmitt, who is now 57 said examining the contents.

It seems the station's owner had found the wallaet and stashed it in a drawer, hoping the owner would come back looking for it. But it was only when Ted Nyman 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.

Schmitt, who is an antiques dealer himself, is accustomed to digging through other people's attics for wartime letters and other personal histories but he never expected it. "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.

"They're good, honest people out there", Schmitt said at the pleasant surprise. We're sure he was happy to receive the photos of his high-school girlfriends and a dry-cleaning receipt, which the wallet also contained.

"It makes me wonder if I still got some dry cleaning out there", Schmitt said.

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