Vietnam veteran reunited with lost Purple Heart, thanks to fellow veteran and his dog

A Vietnam veteran was reunited with his war medals after they were stumbled across by another veteran. (Morgan Hill Police Department)

A Vietnam veteran did not even realize his Purple Heart and Navy corpsman medal were missing – until he got a phone call from the Morgan Hill Police Department in California.

Jeffrey Simon, 75, said had he known the medals were lost: “I probably would’ve freaked out.”

But they were found before he knew they were gone thanks to another veteran, who discovered them while he was walking his dog.

Morgan Hill police said in a Facebook post that the medals were found, along with military paperwork, in Morgan Hill, located about 75 miles south of San Francisco.

"Someone is definitely missing these today, they just may not realize it yet," police said.

Authorities said the medals were in a leather satchel that was put on top of a vehicle before driving away. The man who found the satchel, Lenny Kurtz, told KPIX-TV he would have missed the bag were it not for his dogs.

“Sometimes things happen that are just meant to be,” said Kurtz, who also happens to be a Vietnam veteran.

Lenny Kurtz and Jeffrey Simon pose with their war medals after Simon was reunited with his lost Purple Heart. (Morgan Hill Police Department)

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Kurtz, who also has an Army Corpsman medal for his service, turned the items in to police.

They were eventually able to contact Simon.

“Being that they were missing, I would’ve gone crazy looking for them because I asked the gal that packed them, I asked her today, ‘Where’d you put those?’ And she said, “I don’t know, somebody grabbed it and put it in the truck,’” he told the television station.