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35 years later, wallet returned

An Illinois man who lost his wallet as a 14-year-old in 1971 got an unexpected call: His wallet had been found.
/ Source: The Associated Press

It took 35 years, but someone finally returned Gary Karafiat's wallet.

Karafiat — now Naperville's community relations director — lost the wallet as a 14-year-old freshman at Benet Academy in Lisle.

He picked up the billfold from Wheaton's St. Francis High School Friday.

It was 1971 when it fell beneath the bleachers at St. Francis's gym, where Karafiat was watching a basketball game. He thought he'd never see it again.

But he received a call last week notifying him construction workers had removed bleachers from the gym, and a teacher had found the wallet underneath them.

The wallet contained no money, but Karafiat says it was full of memories anyway.