An Iowa theater, built over 90 years ago, underwent renovations after coming under new ownership. Once the floorboards were torn up, they found an unusual relic.
Losing something as important as a wallet or purse is a traumatic experience. A floodgate of emotions is opened upon realizing this critical article is missing.
Fear, panic, and anguish quickly set in as you begin running through the laundry list of the things you’ll need to replace: driver’s license, credit cards, insurance cards, and all those business cards you never look at but inexplicably never throw away.
While renovating the Talent Factory’s theater in Nevada, Iowa, Larry Sloan stumbled upon someone else’s anguish
He recovered a wallet lost beneath the floorboards of the old theater
The Talent Factory “was built in the ’20s. So many generations of people that saw their first movie here,” Sloan tells KCCI. Sloan purchased the theater because he loves the history. Much to his surprise, he found a little piece of lost history right inside his theater.
“It was plastic. So the first thing that came to my mind was ‘this must be a child’s wallet,’” Sloan adds. He would later find out that he was correct.
Unsure of how old the wallet was, Sloan opened it to find a pocket calendar from 1944
The wallet was over 70 years old
Further inspection revealed the wallet belonged to Clare McIntosh. Inside, they found McIntosh’s boy scout card and some WWII ration stamps.
A handwritten I.D. was also found, and on it was listed McIntosh’s telephone number at the time as “8.”
McIntosh’s home telephone number was just a single digit
If “8” was a local telephone number, phone books must’ve been a lot smaller in the 1940s
Before purchasing the Talent Factory, Sloan worked as an investigator.
He put his investigative experience to work in an attempt to track down the owner of the mysterious wallet
Surprisingly, he was able to locate the now 86-year-old Clare McIntosh. Sloan gave McIntosh a call to inform him that his lost wallet from 1944 was just found.
“I haven’t lost my wallet,” said a confused McIntosh. At first, he thought Sloan was playing a joke on him, but soon realized the stranger on the other end of the line was being serious.
Still living in Iowa, in the area surrounding Des Moines, McIntosh drove down to the Talent Factory and collected his long-lost wallet
McIntosh was surprised to be reunited with something he forgot that he even lost.
He said he’s going to “cherish” his newly found wallet and the memories it contains
Congratulations, McIntosh, on finding your wallet over 70 years after losing it.
Watch the video here:
Credit: NTD
