This charming story comes straight out of Lake Crystal, Minnesota, where mechanic Chad Volk was just trying to fix a cooling fan on a 2015 Ford Edge when he stumbled on a surprise that had been hitching a ride for nearly a decade.
“I messed around a little bit and then pulled it back out and the wallet was sitting on a little ledge where it needed to snap down,” Volk told CBS News. “I pulled the wallet out and that’s what it was.”
Inside the brown trifold was a Michigan driver’s license, $15,00, a faded lottery ticket, $275 in Cabella’s gift cards, and a Ford employee ID. It was proof, Volk joked, that no matter how long you’ve worked under hoods and under chassis, you’ve never seen it all.
The wallet’s owner? Richard Guilford, known around the Ford plant as “Big Red.” Rewind the clock to Christmas 2014, and Guilford was working on a new red Edge when disaster struck. He’d worn sweatpants to the plant that day, which meant no trouser pockets. His wallet slipped from his breast pocket while bending over the SUV, and vanished.
Guilford later guessed wrong, thinking it might’ve landed in a Flex instead of an Edge, and so began the wallet’s 10-year odyssey. From Michigan to Arizona, and finally Minnesota, 151,000 miles later it landed in Volk’s shop bay.
Volk quickly tracked Guilford down on Facebook, and the reunion was filled with laughter. “‘Is this your wallet?’ First thing I said was ‘Did you find it in a car?!’” Guilford recalled with a chuckle.
Now retired, Guilford was thrilled to have his long-lost wallet back, though not for the money. “It restores your faith in humanity that people will say, ‘Hey, you lost this, I found this, I’m going to get it back to you,’” he said. He marveled at how it survived the Minnesota snow and rain, and even the heat of an Arizona transmission bay.
Ford Motor Company spokesman Said Deep summed it up perfectly: “Can you imagine the odds?”
And the story has one last sweet twist: Cabella’s agreed to honor the gift cards inside. Guilford, who also works part-time as an auctioneer, said he’ll keep the wallet itself intact, safely stored in his china cabinet. His hope? That one day his kids and grandkids will pull it out and tell the tale of their ancestor’s wild, wandering wallet.
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