A suburban woman who lost her wallet nearly 30 years ago while on vacation recently got quite the surprise.
A doctor found the wallet right where Julia Hsia lost it - in a river.
In 1995, Hsia and her boyfriend at the time took a trip to the Grand Canyon State to see her cousin. During the vacation, Hsia, her boyfriend and the cousin drove across the Salt River in Mesa when they encountered a problem.
“The truck starting taking on water and floating down the river,” said Hsia, who lives in unincorporated St. Charles.
Everyone got out safely, but her wallet was gone.
“I put the wallet in the camera bag,” she said. “It floated away. I forgot about the wallet, but never forgot that day.”
After that happened, Hsia's mother gave her a replacement wallet and she moved on.
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She never thought about the one she lost until a few months ago.
Dr. Jeremy K. Bingham, a dermatologist who lives in Mesa, contacted her on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
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“I was beyond surprised,” she said. “It was amazing that he went into the trouble to look me up, I cannot believe it. A lot of people would have not bothered.”
Hsia wasn't the only one who was stunned.
“It is very unusual that you would find something like that in the Salt River,” Bingham said. “The elements would normally would break it down. It was just a sort of perfect storm of where it landed and came to rest at the bottom of the river. The sand really helped preserve this wallet, the cards and all the memories in it.”
The two are now friends who say they made a connection that was meant to be.
