A wallet lost more than a decade ago by a Michigan autoworker has turned up in the most unlikely of places: wedged under the hood of a car in Minnesota.
Richard Guilford, a retired Ford assembly line worker, was stunned to learn that his long-lost tri-fold leather wallet — missing since 2014 — had been discovered inside the engine bay of a 2015 Ford Edge. The wallet, which contained his driver’s license, work ID, lottery tickets, cash, and $275 in gift cards, was found in June by mechanic Chad Volk at a repair shop in Lake Crystal, Minnesota.
Volk spotted the wallet nestled between the transmission and air filter box of the high-mileage SUV, which had clocked 151,000 miles. He reached out to Guilford via Facebook with a photo and a message:
“Did you lose your wallet years ago? If so, it was in the engine bay of a car.”
When Guilford saw the photo — complete with a younger version of himself on the license — he was floored.
“Crazy,” he said of the discovery.
The last time Guilford had seen the wallet was in 2014, while working at the Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan. He had been inspecting new vehicles before shipment when he suddenly realized his wallet was gone. Despite searching through dozens of cars, he couldn’t find it.
“I can’t take too much time to look for this because I gotta work. I’m on the clock,” he recalled thinking at the time. “No luck. Life went on.”
Now 56 and retired as of 2024 after nearly 35 years with Ford, Guilford lives in Petersburg, Michigan. He was amazed by how well the wallet had been preserved despite its long journey through extreme weather.
“Think about this: 11 years, rain, snow. It was in Minnesota, for crying out loud. It was in Arizona when it was bought,” he said. “Think about how hot a transmission gets in Arizona driving down the road. That’s incredible.”
Even more incredible? Some of the gift cards were still usable. Outdoor retailer Cabela’s confirmed that a $250 gift card in the wallet was still valid — and even offered Guilford additional value as a goodwill gesture.
As for the wallet’s future, Guilford plans to turn it into a family keepsake.
“I’m going to put everything back in it and leave it just like it is,” he said. “It’s gonna sit at the house in the china cabinet, and that’s for my kids. They can tell my great-grandkids about it. We’re big into stories. I like tellin’ stories. That’s just who I am.”