PHOENIX — Ronald Reigottie is amazed as he explains to ABC15 how he was touched by the kindness of a stranger.
“I come out to get into this car which is my daughter-in-law's, and I see the wallet sitting her on the windshield like so,” said Reigottie outside his home today.
On July 29th, the Army Veteran was at Waddell’s Longhorn Corral for dinner and drinks.
And that is where this story begins.
“Doing Karaoke out back, been there a hundred times, never had any issues,” said Reigottie. “On the way out, a gentleman bumped into me the wallet was probably sticking out too far as you saw the size of it.”
He says he stopped at a gas station on the way home and quickly realized his wallet was gone.
Thinking it may have fallen out of his pocket, he immediately returned to the restaurant.
“They were really cool about it at the restaurant, they checked the parking lot, the security had information on it, they took my name, my number,” said Reigottie.
Unfortunately, they came up empty-handed on the wallet. It's a nightmare scenario for anyone who has ever misplaced one.
Inside were credit cards, insurance and medical ID’s, his driver's license, and even his social security card.
Lucky for him the panic would be short-lived.
“Walked right past the wallet didn’t even see it on the car until I went to back the car out,” said Reigottie.
Two days after losing it, all of a sudden, it was on his windshield at his home. That’s when he quickly went inside to check his security camera.
“There’s the gentleman, there’s the SUV, looks like a GMC Envoy,” said Reigottie pointing at the video.
Sure enough, a man pulls up to the curb, drops off the wallet on the car, and left without fanfare or credit. The gesture certainly isn’t lost on Ronald who wants to send a message to him... wherever and whoever he is.
“All I can say is thank you, I’m just glad, he saved me a lot of heartache and a lot of headaches with the credit card companies, and all I can say is a thousand times thank you,” said Reigottie. “If he had knocked on the door, I would have given him a reward.”