There’s nothing more frustrating than losing your wallet, especially when you’re a little over a thousand miles away from your home. Besides money, a wallet contains your IDs, business cards, phone numbers, and sometimes even passport-size photos that you can use for official documents. Many people store important and valuable information in their wallets and pictures of their loved ones.
It’s a personal thing, so naturally, when you lose it, panic, anxiety, and fear overtakes you. The idea of your personal IDs in someone else’s hands can send you down the rabbit hole. This happened to Hunter Shamatt, a 20-year-old man traveling from Omaha to Las Vegas by flight to attend his sister’s wedding.
Losing the Wallet
The young man lost his wallet with his photo ID, debit card, a not-yet deposited $400 pay check, and $60 that he borrowed from his parents for the weekend wedding in Las Vegas. When he realized his wallet was gone, an anxious Hunter immediately called his mom, Jeannie Shamatt, for advice.
“It kind of sucked… I was anxious not having my ID,” said Hunter, who works as a carpenter.
After speaking to his mom, the duo called Frontier Airlines to see if someone had turned in a lost wallet because Hunter thought he may have accidentally dropped it on the flight. When the customer service agents denied having found a lost wallet, the Shamatts reported it missing and requested the customer service agents to keep an eye out for it.
“It being Vegas and all, I figured it was gone forever,” said Hunter.
After his sister’s wedding, Hunter and his parents drove to the airport to fly back home. Jeannie was worried about her son’s identification papers and didn’t know if he’d be allowed on the flight without them.
She said, “We were very anxious. I was worried. I was anxious. He was anxious.”
The officials at the airport interviewed Hunter for about an hour, and then he was allowed on the flight back home with his parents. So finally, the Shamatts were back home, but without the wallet.
Hunter Receives a Package
The next day Hunter received a package at his home. Strangely, he couldn’t find the sender’s name on the box. But it was addressed to him. So with a hint of fear and a ton of curiosity, Hunter took the package inside, where he opened it in front of his parents. What he saw inside the box dropped everyone’s jaws. It was his wallet! But it wasn’t alone. Beside the wallet was a handwritten note by a good Samaritan.
The note read:
“Hunter, found this on a Frontier flight from Omaha to Denver – row 12, seat F wedged between the seat and wall. Thought you might want it back. All the best.”
“P.S. I rounded your cash up to an even $100, so you could celebrate getting your wallet back. Have Fun!!! – T.B.”
At first, Hunter thought it was a prank. Why would anyone give a random stranger $40? It took him and his parents a moment to process what had just happened. His wallet had actually made it back home! But was it true? Did the kind stranger really round off the $60 that he borrowed from his parents to $100? The only way to find out was to check the wallet.
“No way, no way. That can’t be. No way, just no way,” said Hunter as he counted the money three times.
Jeannie said, “Everybody was so excited, none of us could believe it. It was absolutely amazing.”
On the Quest to Find the Kind Stranger
The Shamatts couldn’t believe what had just happened. Not only did the wallet return undamaged, but a kind stranger also rounded off Hunter’s $60 to make it $100 before returning it back to him. Do such acts of kindness exist even today? Yes! The Shamatts knew that the right thing to do was to thank the kind stranger for going out of their way to ease their worries.
But how would they find him or her? There was no name or address on the package. The only thing they knew was the stranger’s initials – T.B. Jeannie quickly posted the note on Facebook, requesting people to help her find the kind stranger. The post quickly went viral with thousands of likes, shares, and comments. Within days the kind stranger contacted her; his name was Todd Brown from Omaha. Apparently, someone working with Brown saw Jeannie’s post and connected them.
Hunter was filled with gratitude, so he wrote Brown a thank you note that read,
“Sir, I can’t thank you enough. What you’ve done for me is virtually unheard of. Never in my life have I or my family witnessed such generosity. I never expected to see my wallet again, let alone with $40 more. Thank you so much, I’ve got student loans and a truck loan, and it makes all the difference.”
Brown and his wife never imagined the magnitude of their kind gesture.
Jeannie said, “He and his wife told me they cried when I told them everything that happened…”
In Summary…
This proves that a little act of kindness goes a long way. You might not know the effects of your kind gesture, but they’d mean the world to the person experiencing it. So pay the kindness forward because all it takes is one small step to change the world. After all, charity begins at home, and Todd Brown proves it!
