15-year-old has wallet stolen then 58 years later gets call claiming it’s been found

Losing a wallet is a huge pain in the ass.

First, you’re losing the cool wallet you’ve found that perfectly matches your purse or fits perfectly into your back pocket.

Then you have your money stolen. On top of that, you have to cancel any credit or debit cards you might have.

But the most annoying part of losing your wallet is having to get new forms of ID and things like library cards.

And that sandwich club card you had two punches left before you get a free sandwich, you can forget about that.

This is likely how Donna Brown felt when she lost her wallet at the old Sunset Theater in Lodi, California 60 years ago at the age of 15.

Well, she didn’t exactly lose it. Brown was washing her hands in the theater’s bathroom in 1962 when she last saw the bright red billfold wallet filled with black and white photos and a silver dollar.

“Coming to the movie theater all the time, because I live so close. There was a grocery store at the corner, so I would always walk past there and I would always look at the (movie) posters to see what was coming,” she told CBS 13 Sacramento.

https://www.facebook.com/LodiSunset/photos/a.116579166449601/116579069782944/?type=3&theater

She said there was just one other girl in the bathroom at the time and she suspects that this girl stole her wallet.

“When I found her…I said, ‘I know you have my wallet cause you were the only one in there.’ I said, ‘I want my wallet and I want my silver dollar too,’” said Brown.

https://www.facebook.com/LodiSunset/posts/252535722853944?__xts__[0]=68.ARBlhlvlci5OoW_4UDj_rf20PGqyLEaPztzd1Ek0sTD3e3K4sdpfQKj_KRJnt6oIYPttq9naP8k5FoBD6-GM91OW5x9MWxQwpAZqApBucg-XAA3nUeVwrlkK0iNuGkOVG-lX-8BngXAXcjzubz_2dOZPktB0x1dHuFR0oKZuoreD9ROg-0an0AdZ4dRbCwo-LjWe1pBGZVOrbVy6rSQQ9kcuUM2CcpOjAdJAHkDW-v1iVPGT-OTq9VFBgqLsvVi2eZid6FinJFsBKd4xpp4S7KwxEMnNlRVS_vQDpC6hwua5B72kstbHL6IyC5oovvZiOBctQHvd1JLTlwxu7b1qSso&__tn__=-R

That day she lost her wallet, her pictures, the silver dollar, her school I.D., and workers permit.

And she never thought that she’d see it again.

But miraculously she did 60 years later.

https://www.facebook.com/LodiSunset/posts/244524393655077?__xts__[0]=68.ARDfL7BsCMVW3aV175TpLqzgA3ZKWmmcLC5-OBzcuFvlNjGE5PSgqcXex78GT1aeFsQwl8A4IUFy3oSvWB9uJcz2CWEI-Yt05krSC3Chp6U2z7mEZ8R28YKViPGmoUx94_D25yUTq-ja_UUC5rTpVaqCEqkOlIlQW6i1utIlvlNqnBlsiwA8VqEbnxVS_HjssW7L3xGwzMU57p6dJfacrYiQYZh6L0wQ_raKn8a-lrh_l8vzF3f9Shk_JmanbjZD2SWVwqu2MDKTGXKDxnQUKtqX2-bHZjT_3p0mp_9z03GlhCG6RvzymAmS18VlqnAuZmE0diu3GTXsT9_keqz6yTk&__tn__=-R

The theater is being renovated into a community and performing arts center.

The wallet was found during renovations after a wall had been demolished.

“And all of a sudden Chris said, ‘Hey, look what I found!” Eric Schneider, a construction worker on-site, told ABC 10.

The wallet was still in pristine condition too.

Inside was an ID card from Lodi High School, a second ID, DMV permit, a work permit, and photos of family and friends.

“It’s amazing to me… it’s unbelievable. When you don’t think about something all those years and they call and say, ‘We have your wallet,’” said Brown.

It’s believed that the wallet thief gained access through the attic near the bathroom and tossed the wallet in between the wall after stealing the silver dollar.

Theater owner Terry Clark was determined to reunite the wallet with its original owner and started his mission with a plea on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3079578398732092&set=p.3079578398732092&type=3&theater

“I really thought about what if it was mine. What touched me was the pictures. The family pictures, the friends that said best wishes, ‘I hope we never lose touch’, all the things that they wrote on the pictures like we did with our yearbooks,” Clark said.

A 60’s flashback! Construction crews in Lodi found a wallet in the wall of the old Sunset Theater 58 years after it went missing. Why the wallet’s owner says getting it back is so important on @CBSSacramento pic.twitter.com/0NQTPb56Tg

— Velena Jones (@velenajones) May 21, 2020

“That was Facebook in 1960, you carried it with you… I didn’t know the history of those people, I didn’t know who passed, I didn’t know what meaning they had to her, so I knew I had to get it back to her.”