found wallet from the 70's

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Yeah, I’d think a local human-interest reporter (TV or print) would be all over this. Then someone reads the story who knows someone who knows someone…

[Pushkin]

I’d like to know what would happen if you dropped the wallet off the Empire state building

[Rilchiam]

I’m workin’ on it…

[Rilchiam]

Okay, here’s what I’ve got. Although I don’t want to submit it to any of the TV stations until we hear from filmyak again.

Also note that I’m only using his screen name as a placeholder. If he wants me to submit this, I’ll use his real name. And there are some other gaps that would have to be filled in as well.

An internet community with powerful and far-reaching resources pulls together to try to track down one Donald Eugene Ivens, who forgot his wallet over thirty years ago, and since then, seems to have been forgotten by society.

On January 11th, 2007, [filmyak], a poster on the Straight Dope Message Board, opened a thread asking for help in locating the owner of a wallet found inside a wall of his house. Since the wallet contained a Social Security card, an Army honorable discharge card, a California driver’s license listing a birth year of 1931, and an American Legion card, he thought it would be short work to locate either the owner or a family member. Other posters responded with links to search engines and contact info for government agencies. Another poster, a professional genealogist, offered his services.

Filmyak began a private communication with the genealogist, still not having revealed the wallet owner’s name to the board at large. Between them, they soon found that a man from an age when personal information was shared freely had still left few traces of himself.

The genealogist followed a lead in the Pacific Northwest, but an attempt to make contact through an intermediary met a dead end. While other posters waited for updates, they shared info about archaeological finds in their houses. Soon, filmyak and the genealogist returned with reports on new and failed leads in Iowa. One phone number had been disconnected; the other was listed with the wrong middle initial.

Next contact was the American Legion, and a university with a faculty member who shared the last name. But the California American Legion office had no record of the man, and the national Legion office could only confirm that he was not currently a member. By this time, more and more posters had been drawn to the thread, and speculation began as to whether the wallet’s owner had worked in construction, or if a more unusual combination of circumstances had led to its placement in the wall.

Filmyak reported that the university lead’s last name differed by one letter, and further inquiry had revealed that he was 11 years younger than the quarry. A phone number in Pennsylvania was answered by a widow whose last name matched the spelling, but her late husband had been born ten years too early. Meanwhile, the genealogist announced that the wallet owner’s first and last name combination is shared by fewer than ten adults in the USA. Sure that the next lead would be the correct one, posters continued sharing anecdotes about unusual finds in their own houses, ranging from wedding rings to shotguns (not both in the same house!)

Filmyak sent scans of the wallet’s contents to the genealogist, and when a veteran’s search turned up nothing, almost abandoned the project. But the thread had now been viewed 9,600 times and counting, so rather than leave his fellow posters hanging, he forged on.

Having examined pay stubs from the wallet and the expiration dates on the cards, the genealogist determined that it had been lost circa May 1973, not 1975 as originally stated. The most recent address, on a fishing license, belonged to an apartment building, but no one there remembered a ? filmyak didn’t say if he was white, black, or what male of 5’11’’ from before or after 1973. Tax assessor records indicated that the subject owns no property anywhere in the USA, and he made no appearances in the death indexes for eight different states. Phone directories had been exhausted as a resource, and the genealogist revealed that the first-middle-last name combination, with the subject’s date of birth, is unique in this country, and not listed anywhere in it.

However, there are 248 listings for the last name. On the chance that one might be a relative, other posters offered to call ten each. Did anything come of that? Meanwhile, the original poster found a current address in Long Beach, CA. On January 28, 17 days after the thread began, the poster sent a letter, and revealed to the group that the target of their search is – or was – one Donald Eugene Ivens.

Five minutes later, another poster announced the results of a Google search for that name: an obituary with the right name…and the wrong date of birth. Six hours later, yet another poster submitted the results of their search: a Donald L. Ivens listed as a relative of Donald E. Ivens. And then what? fluffyemu never came back.

An unnamed poster offered the services of a friend in law enforcement, who uncovered a last known address in Bellflower. A DMV search revealed no California driver’s license activity since the late 1980s. Another poster, a journalist, searched for court documents and found that Mr. Ivens has never been charged with a crime or accused of one on the federal level, been involved in a lawsuit, or declared bankruptcy. Frustration mounted: a man with a checkered past would be easier to find than Donald, who apparently has not much past at all!

Another veteran’s search turned up an address in Bell Gardens (not Bellflower). Filmyak sent a new letter to that address, since no response had come from Long Beach. Yet another search yielded two more addresses in California, and one in Arizona. Could Ivens have retired to Arizona?

Filmyak was once again ready to retire from the search, but a most unusual coincidence pulled him back in. His wife’s car was broken into, and the officer who filed the report wore a name tag with the last name IVENS! He was not aware of a relative with the name Donald, but offered to run a check on wallet info. By now, the thread’s view count had risen to 23,926: the second-most viewed of all time.

And that’s what we’ve got so far.

[Baffle]

What’s the most viewed thread of all time?

And after reading your excellent summary, Rilchiam, I have to wonder if this whole thing is just an exceptionally elaborate joke, thirty-four years in the making.

[Rilchiam]

Scalar weapons, which stood at 40,447 views when someone in this thread linked to it. But this thread has gained ground: 35,503 views right before I submitted this.

And they’re actually the most viewed of all time in GQ. But no one outside SDMB needs to know that fiddly little distinction.

[Fear_Itself]

Yet another missing wallet story:

Man gets wallet back from 1946 Hudson:

Glenn Goodlove said he was likely smooching with a girl in the expansive back seat of a 1946 Hudson when his wallet slipped from his pants pocket more than five decades ago. The year was 1952.

Goodlove was a sailor home on leave from the U.S. Navy. The Hudson belonged to his grandfather, who lived in Western Washington.

He’d long since forgotten about the lost leather billfold, until last month when he got a phone call from a pair of southern Idaho car collectors who told him they’d found the wallet.

Looks like the press really eats up this missing wallet schtick.

[WoodenTaco]

Did anyone end up submitting this to a new station?

[alterego]

I forgot to add this previously, but I searched all the relevant databases I have access to through my university with no results.

[Swede_Hollow]

Another ‘lost’ wallet returned long after the fact. A Civil War wallet is being returned to the home state of the person that lost it after an attempt to find the family failed.

[Walloon]

Sarah McKay, who lives in Michigan and is a Rise descendant, tried last year to find someone from Bryant’s family to take the wallet. A Bryant descendant agreed to donate the wallet to the hall in Litchfield.

Sounds to me like it succeeded.

[HighFructose]

Is this were I say " I saw a turtle"?
/Sorry.
//Had to do it.

[John_DiFool]

Just caught this news item, apologize in advance if this is old news, dunno if anyone in this thread was involved in this return:

Man Reunited With Wallet After 37 Years

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

A First World War Doughboy’s wristwatch comes home.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070608/D8PKC6F01.html

[Santos_L_Halper]

I’ve been following this thread from the beginning and seeing it brought up to the top again made me wonder how long it’s been running, so I went back to page one to check. Am I the first to notice that the OP, filmyak, is now a guest?! It’s been almost three months since he posted to this thread! Is there no hope of getting any closure?!

[Siam_Sam]

Still, I’m doing my part here to push the viewer number over the 38,000 mark.

[Common_Tater]

Anybody think - it’s possible this guy doesn’t want to be found, maybe changed his name, identity, left the country for Mexico, etc. Ok, it’s lame, but it’s a thought.

[A.R.Cane]

@Common Tater

Anybody think - it’s possible this guy doesn’t want to be found, maybe changed his name, identity, left the country for Mexico, etc. Ok, it’s lame, but it’s a thought.

Great plot line for a novel. Guy successfully pulls a disappearing act, maybe w/ millions in ill gotten booty, or the perpetrator of an unsolved homocide, only to be undone by a long forgotten lost wallet.

[Fear_Itself]

@A.R. Cane

Great plot line for a novel. Guy successfully pulls a disappearing act, maybe w/ millions in ill gotten booty, or the perpetrator of an unsolved homocide, only to be undone by a long forgotten lost wallet.

But not before he has to kill the guy who found the wallet… :eek:

[BrassyPhrase]

I’m amazed I haven’t heard a radio station or something, talk about this. It’s riveting.

One D00D in the morning and the story and you might hear from someone unexpectedly.

“Hi I’m Crazeeeeee Randy at WOLD, 94.5–and you’ll love this…its on our blog…”