Stolen Wallet Found 56 Years After Boston Theft
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Navy sailor's wallet has been found in Boston 56 years after it was stolen.
A demolition worker at Boston's Paramount Theatre discovered the wallet on April 11 in a wall, 56 years to the day it was stolen from Val Gregoire, the Lewiston, Me., the Sun Journal reports.
"I was stunned," Gregoire's wife, Jeannette, told the Sun Journal after receiving a call from the worker's wife, Kathy Bagen. "How could this have survived?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gregoire was an 18-year-old sailor on the USS Macon when he lost his wallet. He had taken a day of leave in Boston when an assailant slugged him and snatched his wallet and pants. Without ID, Gregoire had to talk his way back onto the ship and was given a night in the brig, Jeannette Gregoire told the paper.
The demolition worker found everything but Val Gregoire's money in the wall, including photographs, IDs and the young sailor's Armed Forces Liberty Pass dated April 11, 1951.
Sadly, Val Gregoire did not live to see his wallet returned. He died in 2003 from complications after a kidney transplant, the paper reports.
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