NEW YORK (FOX NEWS) -- Nearly 27 years ago, amid a crowd of people in Central Park, Ruth Bendik's wallet was stolen. The culprit is still at large, but the wallet has been found -- in the hollow trunk of a cherry tree.
Nearly 27 years ago, amid a crowd of people in Central Park, Ruth Bendik's wallet was stolen.
The wallet was snatched on October 24, 1982, while Bendik, now 69, was in Central Park watching the New York marathon. She went to greet runners at the end of the race and, "when I got out of the crush of people, I realized my purse was much lighter," Bendik reported. "I was just so grateful not to have been harmed."
Last week, Josh Galiley, tree-care supervisor for the Central Park Conservancy, was chopping down a hazardous black cherry tree near Rumsey Playfield when he discovered her blue leather wallet in the trunk of the tree, which he estimates is around 65 years old and 50 feet high.
"I started poking in the soft stuff and this wallet turned up. Having been that low in the tree ... the location indicated it had been there for quite some time."
The wallet still contained her old driver's license and credit cards, Bendik said, although $20 was missing. "Twenty dollars was a lot of money then."
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