New tech platform working to digitize airports' lost and found process
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A woman has been reunited with her father’s World War II identification card after she lost it over six months ago while attending a movie with friends.
Stephanie Carroll, a resident of Manhattan, New York, went to a showing of the "Top Gun: Maverick" movie back in October 2022.
When the production designer went to see the film in Midtown Manhattan, she brought along her late father’s World War II identification card with the intention of showing it to her friends, according to the New York Daily News.
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The ID then went missing during the screening.
She was devastated, she told that outlet.
Stephanie Carroll (right) is shown at the MTA's Penn Station lost and found office after her late father's WWII ID went missing in Midtown Manhattan while she was attending a movie with friends. Lost-and-found clerk Veronica Santana (left) was instrumental in reuniting Carroll and her father's ID. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
A miracle happened over six months later, however: The ID was found.
The ID card appeared at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn in May 2023, and was soon transferred to the MTA’s lost-and-found headquarters at Penn Station.
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The card came across the desk of lost-and-found clerk Veronica Santana, who told the New York Daily News that she "had to find a way to return it."
Shelves at the MTA Lost and Found in Penn Station show a collection of items yet to be returned. One of them was the ID card belonging to Carroll's late father. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Santana is from a military family, too, she said — and couldn’t "see this thrown by the wayside," she told the Daily News.
After she contacted various military facilities in the hope of getting some leads, Brooklyn Army base Fort Hamilton helped narrow down possible relatives who might be linked to the card.
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Santana then found a social media post from Carroll about her late father’s ID — which ultimately led to the return of the item.
Carroll feared her father's ID was lost forever after she brought it along to show friends at a screening of "Top Gun: Maverick" last year. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Carroll was recently reunited with her late father’s ID card — giving Santana a hug and thanking her for the help.
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"I don’t know what to do to thank you," she said to Santana.
To which Santana responded, "It was meant to be with you."
Veronica Santana (left) and Stephanie Carroll embrace. Santana said she felt an obligation to return the pilot's ID to his family. (Evan Simko-Bednarski for NY Daily News via Getty Images)
Carroll’s father, Cmdr. Robert Carroll, served as a U.S. Navy pilot, flying missions in Berlin and in the Korean War, according to the New York Daily News.
"It was meant to be with you."
The 21-year active and reserve military veteran, who was a longtime resident of Massachusetts, died in 2015 at the age of 95.
Cmdr. Robert Carroll was a reserve and active member of the military for 21 years. (New York Daily News)
The "Top Gun" movie was also important to Carroll and her late father.
As she told the Daily News, "he actually lived that life."
Her father was also a commercial pilot for Northeast Airlines and Delta Air Lines at one point.
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"He was very accomplished," she said of her late father.
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