Lost and found
Doctor grateful to those who helped him after briefcase went missing
A doctor from the Montreal area who spends some of his time working in southwestern Nova Scotia says he was impressed by the thoughtfulness of people here after an incident in which he lost his briefcase.
Dr. Walter Vanast was in Clare at the time – at Saulnierville Pharmacy – when he says he mistakenly put his bag in the wrong vehicle.
It was Saturday morning, Feb. 24, and Dr. Vanast – a neurologist who comes to Nova Scotia every couple of months – had a rental. When he went to put his briefcase in it, he actually put it in the vehicle next to his.
“I put (it) in the car beside mine because apparently it resembled it entirely,” he said.
Just about everything he needed was in that briefcase, he said, and when he went back to get it and saw it was missing, the RCMP were called in. Dr. Vanast assumed his briefcase had been stolen.
But later, the owner of the vehicle in which Dr. Vanast had mistakenly left his bag was made aware of it. The owner’s daughter was using his van when she saw the bag and wondered what it was.
Dr. Vanast, who is based in the Bear River community health clinic when he’s in Nova Scotia, said his briefcase was brought to the Digby hospital, where his secretary picked it up.
“They’re putting it in the mail,” he said on Feb. 26, adding that he expected to receive it in two or three days. “It’s wonderful. I almost signed the contract for a new iPhone yesterday. I said to the guy ‘let me think about it’ and this morning I got this phone call (saying the briefcase had been found) ... And how nice of the people to return it.”
He had nice things to say too about the staff at Saulnierville Pharmacy, where he was told to take whatever he needed for his drive back to Halifax, where he caught a flight back to Montreal.
The police gave him a certificate explaining what had happened to him and he was able to board his plane.
“I expected all sorts of trouble at the airport and Air Canada was just superb,” he said.