Imagine losing your wallet while shopping. In it: Your cash, Social Security number, credit cards and driver's license. Your holidays are likely ruined.
But then something, or someone, or both, enters the picture in a most unusual way.
"They could have gone wild at Walmart before anyone stopped them!" Irving Gower told Action News after he thought he was facing his ultimate Christmas nightmare.
Somewhere between the cash register and his car, his wallet took a walk.
"My credit cards, my bank cards, my Medicare card, so they had my Social Security number," said Gower.
It wasn't until he was 8 miles from the Kennett Square parking lot where he got into his car, that he realized his pocket was empty. So he retraced his steps - and hustled it back to Walmart and told workers what had happened.
"They sort of went into action. They had 4 or 5 people at one time looking for my wallet."
But they found nothing.
Now, Gower had to figure out to break the bad news to his wife Nancy.
"I was sure I was going to be in big trouble so I drove home expecting to have to explain it to 'you know who.'"
Here's where the story gets interesting. Nancy volunteers at Jennersville Regional Hospital. She was at the hospital's pharmacy just as Irvin was heading home - without his wallet - when she overheard a woman asking for directions to her house.
"I said, 'Well, who are you looking for?' and she said, 'Mr. Irving,' and I said, 'Gower?... That's my husband!'" Nancy Gower told Action News. "She said, 'I found this in the parking lot at Walmart,' and then she handed it to me."
They figure the Good Samaritan ended up at that very same pharmacy when she got lost looking for their street.
"I asked Nancy, 'Well why didn't you open the wallet and take out all the cash and give it to her ?'" said Gower.
His wife replied, "It was such a surprise. It didn't occur to me until I saw her driving off."
They say they think her name is Deanna Moore - but Irving calls her "Christmas angel."
They're hoping their very honest Christmas angel has seen this story, because they would like to give her a reward.
