He wrote back and said that he had lost his wallet at Stroud's over a week ago, and despite going back several times and scouring the area, he was unable to find it. He asked if I could give him a sense of where I found the ID, so he could go back and look in that area. Since I live close to Stroud's, I figured it would be easier to just head back there and take some photos of the area to send him!
I marked an "X" on the trail at the spot with the culvert.
And shared several photos to show where it was on the trail.
This time, I wore my rubber boots, and actually hopped down into the water to peek in the culvert.
And right away, I found some more cards! An insurance card, a credit card, and a Bagel Street Deli punch card. I grabbed those out of the water.
Then I used my camera to zoom in further down the tunnel to see if I could see any other treasures. There were definitely more cards back in there! Although I was tempted to continue the exciting hunt and try to retrieve the cards, I decided that would be way too wet and muddy. I emailed these photos to the professor.
He went to the culvert later that evening, and his wife crawled in the tunnel and retrieved several more cards, including his driver's license! How exciting! I left the cards that I found in my mailbox for him to pick up (social distancing).
He sent me this email at the end of the ordeal:
"Thank you so very much for all your kindness in helping me retrieve my wallet items, and in a time of a pandemic no less.
I had actually lost hope of ever finding it, but your act of kindness has renewed my sense of hope on a more important scale."
I think it's very important for us all to maintain hope these days! I'm glad I was able to help.
