Return of lost wallet earns thanks
A Niagara Falls senior is thanking a Good Samaritan who recently found his wife’s missing wallet outside a Tim Hortons and, after contacting police, had it returned to its rightful owner with everything still in tact.
Hank Handke said his wife, Margaret, walked to a plaza near Five Corners on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 21.
But when she came back to her Huggins Street home at about 10:30 a.m., he said she was “in tears” as she no longer had her wallet, which had about $200, personal identification and several important cards inside.
“She said, ‘I either lost my wallet, or it was stolen,’” said Handke.
He said they went back to scour the area with no luck.
Handke said they went to their banks to cancel all the cards.
After coming back home, he said the phone rang at about 3 p.m. and a Niagara Regional Police constable was on the other line.
“He said, ‘Did you lose something?’ I said, ‘As a matter of fact we just got back from cancelling all the cards,’ and I told him what happened. He said, ‘Are you going to be home? Because I have good news for you. I have your wife’s wallet with all her cards, all her money and everything is all in tact, I’ll bring it right over to you.’”
Handke said the couple learned Niagara Falls resident Ron Keown found the wallet outside a Tim Hortons. It was turned over to police.
“I called him up to thank him, and told him I wanted to give him a reward, that he could have the money in the wallet,” said Handke.
“He said, ‘No, I don’t want anything.’ We met at Tim Hortons, had a coffee, and finally I talked him into taking at least $25 so he could take his mom out for lunch. He was a real nice guy. Christmas miracles are real.”
Handke said his wife has a travel bag, and guesses the wallet “must have popped out of there.”
Keown said he often goes for a walk to Giant Tiger and then stops at Tim Hortons for a coffee, but at that time the establishment was full.
“I just proceeded to walk up the pathway, there was a big bin there for clothing donations or something and I saw a wallet, there was like two pieces, a wallet and a smaller one wrapped with elastic band,” he said.
“I picked it up and opened it up and said, ‘Holy mackerel, there’s a bunch of money in it, a whole bunch of cards and everything.”’
Keown said he saw a library card in the wallet with the Margaret’s name.
“I figured OK, I’ll go to the library and maybe they can look up her phone number, but the library card was really old, and they didn’t have it.”
He said a lady at the library called police for him so an officer could pick up the wallet up and return it to Margaret.
“I said if there’s any problems this is my name, phone number and that was it. Then (Handke) called me, we went and met for a coffee at Tim Hortons and it was just like, Merry Christmas, I’m glad to have helped.”
Keown said he was surprised there was still money in the wallet when he found it.
“It’s Christmas and, you know, as much as I could have used the money, it’s not just in my nature (to take something that’s not his).”
This wasn’t the first time Keown found a missing wallet outside a coffee shop. He said he found a wallet years ago in Chippawa with $1,500 inside.
“Fortunately, there was just one guy in the coffee shop and I asked him if he lost something. He looked for his wallet and I said ‘Here it is,’ and he was so grateful. He was going to Florida and there was $1,500 U.S. in it, so that’s my two experiences with finding wallets.”