By Gus Saltonstall
The sun was shining Wednesday evening and my girlfriend and I decided to go on a walk in Central Park before it got too dark.
I had an interview for a story at 6 p.m., so we only had 30 or so minutes.
At some point during that walk, most likely when we sat on a rock near the 72nd Street entrance, my wallet fell out of my back pocket.
On the walk back home, I realized it wasn’t in my pocket anymore, but I wasn’t positive that I had brought it in the first place. Either way, I had to get back to the apartment for the interview.
After the interview, and scouring our home for the wallet, I ran back out to the rock in Central Park.
No sight of the wallet, though. It was gone, and I fully thought it would be gone for good.
Fast forward to the next morning after hours of being in a bad mood and I got a phone call that came up as spam. I never pick up a spam call, but for whatever reason, I picked that one up.
It was a woman from the Jewish Community Center (JCC) at West 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue saying that somebody had returned my wallet to their front desk.
I ran over and picked it up.
Everything that had been in the wallet, credit cards, health insurance cards, an ID, even the $2, was still there.
To whoever took the time to pick up my wallet, look through it without taking anything to see if they could connect me to an address or community center, and then took the time to do the 20-minute walk from that point in the park to the JCC — thank you very much.
The returner did not leave their name. They did it just to be helpful.
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Nice to know that there are still good, honest people in the city!!!
I had the same experience when I lost my wallet in Central Park many years ago. While I was still in the park, I received a couple calls on my home VOIP line that displayed as anonymous. It took me a while to realize that those calls might be related to losing my wallet. When I looked at the incoming call history on the VOIP line’s website, the number was listed. I called that number, and it was answered by the Central Park precinct who told me that a tourist returned my wallet. But since I didn’t call soon enough, they sent the wallet to NYPD headquarters. When I picked it up the next day, everything including about $100 in cash was still in it. FYI, the officer in the CP precinct somehow found my number but wouldn’t leave a message because they were concerned that someone other than myself would answer the phone and try to retrieve the wallet.
I love New York!
New York is the best!!!🥰
That is wonderful to hear — thank you for sharing this story. And thank you to the good samaritan!
My husband realized when we were in Chefchauen, Morocco that he lost his wallet in the Sahara Desert. Our incredible driver called the tent community we stayed at (yes, wifi in the desert) and the owner found his wallet. Our driver set up a What’s App group of Moroccan drivers to see who’d pick up and deliver my husband’s wallet. No one was going to where we presently were. A few days later in Fes, our driver showed up with the wallet! Everything intact. No one would accept a tip for that. We earned a great story and experience for free.
My sunglasses were taken from my car in the hubbub when we arrived outside the old city in Fez, Morocco. Our official government tour guide put the word out that they need to be returned. When we got back to the car, someone had placed them in the door pocket where they were taken from. I was told that older people there come down hard on kids who prey on tourists.
We need more stories like this. So nice to hear some lovely news!
You have no idea how many wallets, credit cards, vaccine cards during Covid etc, I have found and returned upon googling the person’s name and finding a few details about them. My wife does this too. Just two weeks ago I found a laptop bag with a work laptop in it. I opened it and saw the person’s name on the login screen. Googled his name plus the company name I saw on a sticker on the laptop and found the person on LinkedIn. I emailed him, told him where I found the laptop and the next day we met downstairs in front of my building. When I gave him the laptop he wanted to give me money for the good deed but I refused it. Instead I told him to pay it forward. And that was that.
It is the best way to be an ambassador of your city.
Yes!
Same here – during the pandemic, I found more phones than ever before in the park. And happy to say they all found their owners.
Wonderful story! I found an iPhone on a bench; it was unlocked, so I was able to find name of owner. I googled his name, found the address on line, and returned the phone to him personally. He said just that morning he’d been advised to lock his phone from now on & his response had been: “But I never lose my phone!”
Not only a heartwarming story but an amazing coincidence that this example of UWS kindness happened to, of all people, a WSR reporter. Lucky Gus to have such a great story fall into his lap!
I’ve done this a couple of times, and the recipients have always been very grateful and try to pay me. One sent me flowers the next day!
Love those stories.
I once found a note book/journal on 6th Avenue that was full of entries of recipes, wine shops, shopping lists, appointments, etc., but it had no information that identified the owner. I called a few of the numbers and finally spoke to someone who was a manager of a restaurant or owner of a wine shop – can’t remember. After describing the contents of the notebook they knew who I was talking about. They called the owner, who called me. Turns out the notebook belonged to an owner /chef of an restaurant in Westchester. We met the next day in midtown. Needless to say he was overjoyed that I tracked him down, and so was I!
A wallet my husband lost while shopping on Broadway turned up in our mail box a few days later, totally intact and even still containing a $500 gift card. Let us rejoice. We still enjoy a civilization!
I’ve lost my wallet twice in the past 30 or 40 years here. Both times running to trains in the subway. Both times they were mailed back to me with nothing missing and no identifying info about the good Samaritan. Just two of the MANY examples I’ve experienced about how SO many people here are kind and will go the extra mile for others. And despite what anti-NY loons and others who’ve never been here say about our city.
There are far more people like this living in the city than there are criminals. Maybe people can try to keep this in mind when they’re freaking out about the latest crime story.
If course there are more good people than bad. And I hope we get more torie like this one. However, increase in petty crime, which has happened, does affect morale. And that does not mean more people are doing anything. More likely the same people are just doing more of it.
One has nothing to do with the other. I’ve found/returned wallets and a bag with a laptop over the years, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be there to save anyone when a crime is being committed. The criminals are still out there.
Of course they do. It’s a question of whether you see the city as a community facing challenges together or a terrifying wasteland of lurking evil. It’s amazing how many people choose to live here while apparently believing the latter.
A NY’er would NEVER put a wallet in a back pocket!
You are right about that!
He grew up here. I would say he is a New Yorker. But that did catch my eye
Reminds me of a great “story.” A man on his way to work is in a crowded subway train, standing next to a door, and as the doors close he feels someone brush against his jacket and realizes his wallet is gone. He manages to grab onto the arm of the perpetrator; it gets caught in the door and the sleeve actaully rips off. But his wallet is gone and the perpetrator has escaped (minus a sleeve). The man gets to the office, still smarting, where there’s a message from his wife: he left his wallet at home.
Good one – thanks for the chuckle!
I love the community institution element of this story as well as the general Good Samaritan theme – whoever found the wallet in the Park, maybe en route to a class at the JCC, just knew they could ask an admin person there to follow up with the next steps to complete the good deed and help reunite owner and wallet. I’m not even a JCC member and I know I could do that too! It’s having places and people like this in our neighborhood community that is so wonderful. (Not that good deeds don’t happen outside one’s neighborhood or from random cab drivers and good deeds on the subway etc – just nice about here too.)
Used to be that one could put a found wallet in a mailbox and the post office would deliver it to its owner. Don’t think that a wallet would fit in the slot these days. I blame Phish.
Yes there are good people among us still! I was given the opportunity to do a good deed last week myself. I was downstairs in the food court area of Grand Central. I had just got my coffee and went to the table area and noticed an Iphone laying on a table. I thought I should run this over to the lost and found; then I thought for a moment, if it is laying here still and not scooped up by someone else that it just must of happened. So I just stayed at that table with the phone baby sitting it. I figured if they are not already zipping away on their train that they’d be back to collect it. Sure enough my gut instinct was right, just stay put and wait for them to return. Sure enough about five minutes later a very panicked young gentleman came whipping by looking for his phone. He was thrilled nobody had walked off with it.