WWII medals given back to widow who accidentally donated them to Goodwill

The widow of a World War II veteran received quite the surprise Tuesday when her husband’s war medals, which she accidentally donated, were returned to her.

“I’m very glad to have them back,” Natalya Cox, wife of late WWII veteran Marvin Cox, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I was very excited.”

Cox reportedly accidentally donated her husband’s medals, one of which was a Purple Heart, to a Goodwill store in downtown St. Louis when she was cleaning out her house during a remodel.

Goodwill employees found Cox’s husband’s medals last week and sought to return them to the owner.

"I still could not imagine how I put that box with the medals in there," Cox told the Post-Dispatch. "I'm very thankful that people could investigate and return it to me."

The employees put the war medals in a decorative case when they returned them to Cox.

The WWII veteran from St. Louis served during his late teenage years and died in 2009 at 83 years old. Cox, according to his wife, was badly burned in an explosion during the war and lost a number of teeth, thus receiving the Purple Medal.