Back on June 2, Dondi Mitchell was fishing when he caught something unusual near Athol, Massachusetts.
“I pulled it in right here, but I thought I snagged the lily pads or the bottom,” said Mitchell.
It wasn’t a fish at all, but a purse, weighed down by rocks.
“I said to myself, ‘Gee I wonder if I know this person’ so when I opened it up as soon as I saw the wallet and the picture, I knew exactly who it was, I was like you gotta be kidding me, this is a lady I went to school with,” said Mitchell.
Her face was right there on the license, Kim Sexton, now Kim Flanders. Kim and Mitchell graduated Mahar Regional together back in 1985. In 1999, Kim’s bag had been stolen and evidently, launched into the lake. Her JCPenney credit cards, lip gloss, and even wedding and anniversary bands were left inside, dirty, but intact.
Mitchell found her on Facebook.
“He sent me a message and he said, ‘I just reeled in your purse,’ and I was like what,” said Flanders.
And as if the chances of having a high school classmate find a stolen bag at the bottom of a pond after 18 years were slim, the timing was even slimmer. June 2, the day Mitchell reeled it in, was the same date Kim got married to her former husband back in 1990.
“What are the odds? Evidently, better than winning the Mass. lottery," said Mitchell.
Mitchell thinks it’s just one of those things that occasionally comes full circle. Once after selling a car, a stranger returned his dog tags from the Army.
“I didn’t know where they were and a gentleman came to my door one day and said, ‘Here they are, they were down between the seats when I was redoing the car,” said Mitchell.
As for Kim, her belongings are on the way back to their rightful owner, even the rings she had cut off when she was pregnant, although she’ll probably have no use now for that 90’s lip gloss.
“He sent it back, I haven’t received it yet, but I keep checking the mail,” said Flanders.
Mitchell said the bag should arrive in Florida, where Kim now lives, within the next few days.
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