Man reunited with his long lost 70-year-old wallet during the renovation of a vintage 1920s theater

What if one day, you receive a call and the person on the other line tells you they found something you had lost several decades ago? Would you be skeptical? Excited? Overjoyed? Well, for his part, 86-year-old Clare McIntosh wasn’t sure what to make of it when the new owner of a vintage 1920s theater in Iowa informed him his wallet, the one he lost in 1944, has been found under the theater’s 90-year-old floorboards.

Larry Sloan purchased The Talent Factory theater in Nevada, Iowa, because he was fascinated by how rich the old 1920s theater was in terms of historical value.

The Talent Factory “was built in the ’20s. So many generations of people that saw their first movie here,” Sloan told KCCI. In his excitement, Sloan began renovating the theater at once. Upon lifting the almost-century-old floorboards, Sloan’s enthusiasm was rewarded by a little piece of long-lost history.

Right there, he recovered a child’s wallet that had quite the story to tell, as was evidenced by the 1944 pocket calendar Sloan found inside. Along with the calendar, he found a boy scout card, some WWII ration stamps, and a handwritten I.D. which identified the wallet’s owner as a Clare McIntosh.

Incidentally, before becoming the new owner of the 1920s theater, Sloan worked as an investigator. He made good use of his skills in order to track McIntosh down, to return the wallet he lost when he was 13.

The 86-year-old Clare McIntosh was skeptical at first upon receiving a call from Sloan, thinking the latter was playing a prank on him. However, he soon realized the man was telling the truth and made the trip to Talent Factory to retrieve his long-lost wallet.

Of course, McIntosh had already forgotten about the wallet he lost 71 years ago but said he is surely going to “cherish” the wallet now along with the memories it has held safe for the past 7 decades.

Watch this amazing historical discovery in the following video!

Congratulations on finding your wallet, McIntosh!

Was there something you lost a while back that you would like find? What is it and why is it important to you? If you would McIntosh, how would you feel about Sloan giving back something you lost that long ago? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!