A Lost Wallet Resurfaces After 11 Years in a Ford Vehicle
A mechanic in Minnesota stumbled upon a long-lost wallet while working on a Ford Edge. The wallet had inadvertently been left behind by a Michigan assembly plant worker over a decade ago.
Chad Volk, who owns LC Car Care in Lake Crystal, discovered the wallet while removing the vehicle’s airbox to replace the cooling fans. As he struggled to fit the airbox back into place, he felt something wedged beneath it. “And that’s where my wallet was,” he recalled.
After thoroughly examining the wallet, which turned out to be leather, Volk found an employee ID that belonged to Richard Guilford, a retired Ford worker. Volk expressed his surprise and, thinking of returning it, decided to use Facebook to track down Guilford. “I’ll find this guy and see if I can get it back,” he said.
When Volk reached out, Guilford’s initial response was, “Did you find that in the car?” He had lost the wallet around Christmas 2014 while fixing an electrical issue. It turned out his wallet slipped into the vehicle when he leaned against it during that shift—a mishap he hadn’t considered previously.
Despite searching, Guilford and his colleagues had been unable to locate it among the 2,000 vehicles on the lot. “Looking under the airbox didn’t even occur to me,” he admitted.
The Ford Edge continued its journey, eventually traveling to Arizona and later to Crystal Lake, where Volk made his unexpected find, racking up over 150,000 miles on the road.
After the two men connected through Facebook, Volk mailed the wallet back to Guilford’s home in Petersburg, Michigan. Guilford was pleasantly surprised to find $15 in cash intact, along with a $250 Cabella’s gift card he had saved for Christmas purchases. “It’s a well-traded currency,” he quipped, clearly amused by the situation.
Later, Guilford confirmed with Cabella that the gift card could still be used. The two men even chatted via video call a few days after their reunion, jokingly suggesting that maybe more wallets would be uncovered if mechanics frequently checked under engine hoods.
