Just when you’re about to give up on people in general, something happens and you realize there are still good people out there … more than we realize.
As strange as what you’re about to read may seem, it really happened.
A week or so ago on a Saturday, Mary and I thought we would take our side-by-side to Rowena, South Dakota, to the junk fest. We were going to zigzag our way over there, and we were about 3 miles out of town when Mary realized she forgot her purse at home. We decided it wasn’t necessary to turn around to fetch the purse.
The junk fest was just that — a bunch of junk. We were about to head home when our daughter called and invited us to join her and her family at the farmers market at Falls Park in downtown Sioux Falls. So we headed that way.
We’ve never been to the Sioux Falls Farmers Market, and as it turned out, that was just the first stop before we headed to Phillips Avenue.
I was standing outside on the sidewalk while Mary and the granddaughters were in some sort of toy store. My phone rang. It was a name and number I didn’t recognize, but I answered it anyway and I’m glad I did.
The guy on the other end asked if I was Rick, and of course I said “Yes.” I asked him why, and he asked if Mary Peterson was my wife. Of course I said, “Yes, why?” His answer floored me.
He said he had her purse. Someone found it at the farmers market and dropped it off at the Lewis Drug Store where he works.
I told him that was impossible because my wife left her purse at home in Luverne. He asked me if we live on Pine Drive, and I asked how he knew that.
He told me my name and address were on a pill bottle in the purse. By now I am thinking this is really weird.
I went into the toy store and found Mary. Putting the phone on speaker, I asked him to describe the purse. He did, and it was a perfect match to Mary’s purse.
So how did someone find Mary’s purse at the farmers market in downtown Sioux Falls and then take it to Lewis Drug on 41st and Marion Road?
The story turned a little more weird as we headed to Lewis Drug.
It was Mary’s purse, and everything in the purse was accounted for. I asked the Lewis Drug Store guy if he knew the person who brought the purse in and why they would bring it all the way out to Marion Road.
He said he didn’t know the person who dropped off the purse. He thought maybe they lived in the neighborhood, and because the pill bottle was from Lewis Drug, they brought it there.
The Lewis Drug Store guy really went above and beyond to get in touch with us and return the purse to Mary.
My name and address were on the pill bottle, and I am a Lewis Drug customer. He had looked me up in their data base for my phone number and called the number on file.
It turns out the number on file was our old landline number which we disconnected four years ago. He called the Lewis Drug Store in Luverne, explained the situation, and asked if they had my cell number on file, which they did. That is how he tracked me down, and we are so glad he did.
About the only explanation we can come up with as to how Mary’s purse ended up at the farmers market is maybe she set the purse in the box of the side-by-side before we left for the junk fest and it rode all the way to Sioux Falls in the back. Someone walked by the side-by-side at the farmers market, saw the purse sitting there, and didn’t want someone else to take it. For whatever reason they turned it into the west side Lewis Drug Store.
Strange but true.