A retired Michigan autoworker was shocked to receive a Facebook message after midnight from a stranger asking: Did you lose your wallet years ago?
“If so,” wrote a man from Minnesota, “it was in the engine bay of a car.”
Richard Guilford could hardly believe what he was reading — a mystery that had lasted a decade was suddenly solved.
Guilford’s tri-fold leather wallet, which contained $15, his driver’s license, a work ID, gift cards worth $275, and lottery tickets, had been found under the hood of a car at a repair shop in Lake Crystal, Minnesota.
AP AUDIO: A Michigan autoworker’s wallet is found under a hood in Minnesota — 151,000 miles later
AP correspondent Ben Thomas reports the story of a missing wallet discovered more than ten years and thousands of miles later.
What had once been a Christmas gift from Guilford’s sons became a cherished family treasure again. Known affectionately as “Big Red” at Ford Motor, he was amazed.
“It restores your faith in humanity that people will say, ‘Hey, you lost this, I found this, I’m going to get it back to you,’” Guilford said Thursday.
The wallet was found in June by mechanic Chad Volk, wedged between the transmission and the air filter box of a 2015 Ford Edge that had 151,000 miles on it.
“Crazy,” Volk said.
The filter box hadn’t snapped into place properly after a repair. “So I messed around a little bit and then pulled it back out, and the wallet was sitting on a little ledge where it needed to snap down. I pulled it out — and that’s what it was.”
Back in 2014, around Christmas, Guilford had been working on the same car at a Ford factory in Wayne, Michigan. It was one of many new vehicles assembled elsewhere that needed extra electrical work before being shipped to dealers.
Later, Guilford realized his wallet had fallen from his shirt pocket. He was sure it had been lost in a car, but he thought it was on the floor of a Ford Flex, not an Edge, and certainly not in the engine.
He searched 30 to 40 cars himself, and his co-workers looked at dozens more, opening doors, checking under seats, and searching behind them.
“I couldn’t take too much time to look for it because I had to work. I was on the clock,” he recalled. “No luck. Life went on.”
Now 56 and living in Petersburg, Michigan, Guilford retired from Ford in 2024 after nearly 35 years. He had long forgotten about the wallet — until the Facebook message arrived, noting his Ford work history.
Volk included a photo of the wallet along with Guilford’s driver’s license. “Big Red” saw a younger version of himself, complete with a red-tinged beard.
“The amazing part was how protected it was,” Guilford said, also tracing the car’s history. “Think about it: 11 years, rain, snow. It was in Minnesota, for crying out loud. It even went to Arizona. Think about how hot a transmission gets in Arizona while driving. That’s incredible.”
Ford spokesperson Said Deep called it a “repair that’s right on the money,” adding: “Can you imagine the odds?”
Cabela’s, the outdoor retailer, said the $250 in gift cards remain valid but offered to replace them anyway. Guilford doesn’t know the status of a $25 card from Outback Steakhouse. The lottery tickets’ numbers have long since faded.
“I’m going to put everything back in it and leave it just like it is. It’s going to sit in the china cabinet at home for my kids,” said Guilford, who also works as a part-time auctioneer. “They can tell my great-grandkids about it. We love stories. I like telling stories. That’s just who I am.”
