Staff writer
Bill Williams was panicking. His wallet was gone.
About two weeks ago, Williams, an 85-year-old retired farmer from Wonsevu, was running errands in Marion with his wife, Margie, correspondent for the Peabody Gazette Bulletin.
Before heading back to Wonsevu, Williams pulled his pickup into Casey’s General Store to refill its tank around noon.
When he pump clicked and the gas stopped flowing, Williams noticed his billfold missing.
“It really shook Bill up,” Margie said. “He had all his information in there.”
Margie said her husband even went through the trash can and the dumpster to no avail.
“I backtracked everywhere I had been,” Williams said. “I just couldn’t find it.”
Along with cash, his driver’s license, credit cards, medical card, and social security card were in his missing wallet.
“We headed back to the house and I got on the phone and started canceling my credit cards,” Williams said. “It wasn’t a big deal, but all that costs to get back.”
Later that day around 5 p.m., Williams received a phone call from the Marion Police Department.
“A very nice construction worker found it and had turned it into the officers there,” Margie said.
When Williams went to get his billfold, the officers told him who the construction worker was and where he was working.
Williams sought out the construction worker to thank him for his honesty and express his appreciation the kind act.
“I offered him reward money because I was so glad to get my wallet back, but he politely refused,” Williams said. “He was a good man. It’s good to know that there are still people like that left in this country.”
Williams never learned the name of the “nice man,” but the man told him, “I just hope someone will do the same thing if it ever happens to me.”
When Williams returned home Margie told her husband “the Good Lord was reminding him to be more careful.”
“I told Bill his guardian angel was watching over him that day,” Margie said. “His guardian angel was working through that man. I just hope he knows how grateful we are.”