After midnight, a retired Michigan autoworker saw a stranger’s Facebook post asking if they had misplaced their wallet in the past.
If it was, it was in a car’s engine bay, a man from Minnesota wrote.
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Richard Guilford was shocked to learn that a mystery that had been unsolved for ten years had been miraculously resolved on his phone.
Under the hood of a car in a Lake Crystal, Minnesota, repair shop, Guilford’s tri-fold leather wallet, which included $15, a driver’s license, a work ID, $275 in gift cards from Cabela’s and Outback Steakhouse, and lottery tickets, was discovered.
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All of a sudden, a Christmas present from Guilford’s sons became a treasure once more. Big Red, as Ford Motor lovingly called him, was amazed.
When someone says, “Hey, you lost this, I found this, I’m going to get it back to you,” it makes you believe in people again. “Thursday,” Guilford said.
Mechanic Chad Volk found the wallet in June, wedged between the air filter box and the transmission of a 2015 Ford Edge with 151,000 miles on it.
“Crazy,” Volk remarked.
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He said that after a repair, the filter box would not snap in place, so I fiddled with it for a little while before taking it out again. The wallet was resting on a small ledge where it should have snapped down. That’s what it was when I took the wallet out.
Rewind the calendar to around Christmas in 2014. At a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan, Guilford was working on the same vehicle. It was one of many brand-new cars that were put together somewhere else but required additional electrical work before being sent to dealers.
Later, Guilford discovered that his wallet had slipped from his shirt pocket. Though he was positive he had lost it in a car, he assumed it was on the Ford Flex’s floor rather than the Edge’s, and most definitely not in the engine.
Guilford claimed to have inspected between 30 and 40 cars, while his colleagues examined dozens more by simply opening the doors and peering behind and under the seats.
I have to go to work, so I can’t take too long looking for this. He remembered the feeling, “I’m on the clock.” “No success. Life continued.
After over 35 years, Guilford retired from Ford in 2024. He currently resides in Petersburg, Michigan, and is 56 years old. Before seeing the Facebook message, he had long since forgotten about the wallet.
Volk sent the driver’s license along with a picture of the wallet. With his red-tinged beard, Big Red saw a younger version of himself.
“I found it amazing that the wallet was so well-protected,” Guilford added, tracing the history of the vehicle. Consider this: 11 years, snow, rain. For crying out loud, that was in Minnesota. When it was purchased, it was in Arizona. Consider how hot a transmission gets while driving in Arizona. That’s amazing.
According to a Ford representative, Deep described the repair as spot on, saying, “Can you fathom the odds?
The $250 in gift cards are still valid, according to outdoor shop Cabela’s, but they have offered to give him new ones nevertheless. Guilford is unsure of the status of an Outback Steakhouse $25 card. The lottery tickets in the wallet have long since faded their numbers.
Guilford, a part-time auctioneer, stated, “I’m going to put everything back in it and leave it exactly as it is, and it’s going to sit at the house in the china cabinet and that’s for my kids.” They can discuss it with my great-grandchildren. We love a good story. I enjoy telling tales. I simply am that.
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From Lake Crystal, Minnesota, Vancleave reported.
