Missing Wallet Returned 46 Years Later

ALMA (WWJ/AP) - There is no time limit on a good deed.

An Alma, Michigan, man recently had his faith in human nature restored, when a stranger returned his wallet that he lost 46 years ago.

"I just couldn't believe it," Harold Hamp, now 78, told WWJ Newsradio 950's Violet Ikonomova. "After all those years and everything, to have it come back to me like that ... just the idea that it was found and brought back to me all intact!"

Hamp was installing a roof on a home back in 1966 when he lost the wallet. Amazingly, it was recently found by another man re-roofing the same home and returned to Hamp this month.

The Oakland Press reported Casey Morgan spied the wallet buried in attic insulation. It appears the wallet fell from Hamp's pocket, tumbled between roofing boards into the attic where it rested for more than four decades.

Morgan's boss Terry Thelen later tracked down Hamp's name through an Alma telephone book and reached his son.

Hamp said he got back all of his photos and $23, including several silver certificate bills.

"Back then $23 was a lot of money. My papers and insurance and everything else was in there," said Hamp. "That just shows me there's still honest people in this world."

Hamp-- whose health is failing, said he has yet to personally thank the roofer who found the wallet, but said he can't wait to shake his hand.

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)