DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MI (WXYZ) — A Dearborn Heights hardware store is trying to get to the bottom of a veteran's missing wallet. How it happened was all caught on a camera inside the store. Now, Dearborn Police are asking the public for help.
"Unbelievable I tell you the truth. I was surprised it happened so quickly," 87-year-old Army veteran Pete Girardi said.
In just a few seconds, someone managed to pick up his wallet after it fell from his pocket. According to Girardi, he has his Veteran's ID in his wallet, something he desperately needs for an upcoming medical procedure.
"Big guy like me, I cried. It was sad," Eric Shingles with Studz Hardware in Dearborn said.
In the video captured on the store's camera last Friday, you can see a young man on his bike coming towards him and you see Girardi's wallet fall out of his pocket.
"I realize when I walk out the store, outside the door, I had my dollar in my hand and I reached for my wallet to put the dollar back in the wallet and I realize I don't have it so I thought I left it on the counter for sure," he recalls.
Girardi says he then goes back into the store to tell the cashier.
"As he came to the cash register he said, 'Hey has anyone seen my wallet?' So that's when he looked down, seen the wallet, pocketed it, and then left," Shingles said.
The young man who came in and picked up the Army veteran's wallet is seen on video walking outside without his bike, possibly putting Mr. Girardi's wallet in his back pocket and then going back into the store to get his bike before leaving or telling anyone he found a wallet.
"Sometimes, if you find a wallet and you're out in a dark parking lot you don't know who it belongs to. It's a little more complicated, but when you see the guy and you're looking at him, that's disheartening for sure."
The good news is Mr. Girardi did not have his driver's license in his wallet so he is able to get a new veteran's card.
"You got all kinds of people in this world, you've got to accept it," Girardi said.
Studz Hardware held off on posting the video on Facebook in hopes that the young man will come back and return the wallet. Dearborn Heights police are asking anyone with information to call them.
