Fishing woman catches wallet missing since 80s, hopes to return it to owner

A woman is searching for the person who lost their wallet in a North Carolina lake 39 years ago.

Sarah Foor and her husband were fishing at Jones Lake State Park near Elizabethtown on Saturday when she reeled in an unusual catch.

"I didn't even catch any fish, but out of everything in the lake, I catch a wallet? How is this even possible?" she said.

The information inside has somehow remained preserved, even after nearly four decades underwater. It belonged to a man from Fayetteville, and it dates back to 1984.

Inside she found a treasure trove from the 1980s: A faded driver's license with a fresh-faced young man, a Cumberland County library card, an array of expired credit cards with dated logos – and even school photos with love messages scrawled across the back from senior year.

Now, she's hoping she can reunite the missing wallet with the owner. For him, these would be precious memories and sweet messages from his past.

Although she's never met him, she knows a lot about him from his wallet.

"Mickey, you're a very special person to me. Love always, Sharon," reads the back of a senior photo, dated from the 1983-84 school year.

"I pulled out everything, and it's drying out," she said.

Foor carefully laid everything out on her table. Even though the wallet had only 50 cents inside, she considers it a treasure.

"The library card is perfect. The license is perfect," said Foor. "Issued May 25, 1982. Expired, March 17, 1986."

She says she would love to find Mickey and return his wallet after all these years, so she reached out to WRAL News for help. If Mickey is found, maybe he can fill in the gaps of his story, answering questions like, "How did the wallet end up at the bottom of the lake?" and "Who is Sharon?"

Foor said she and her husband often fish in Jones Lake.

"We never catch anything," she said.

On the night she found the wallet, her husband caught seven fish.

"But I say my wallet trumps his seven fish," she said laughingly.

Foor is still mystified as to how she managed to catch the wallet. Her tiny hook somehow found the tiny loop of a leather wallet that had been buried in the depths so many decades ago – almost like fate.

Foor says she hopes her story will reach Mickey.

"I'd love to find him and return his wallet," she said. "He's been missing it for a long time."