Bear Creek High School sophomore, Duc Nguyen, was on a Coastal Cleanup service day with his classmates when he made a discovery that would soon change a stranger's life.
He and his peers were collecting garbage along Mosher Slough in Stockton, California. While he was picking up trash for a good cause, Duc spotted something quite unexpected — a stolen letter.
"So, it was under a bridge of like a homeless person encampment. There was a bunch of stolen mail," the student explains in the video below, posted on September 22, 2016.
Duc examined the cluster of papers thoroughly to see what he had stumbled upon. There was a letter dated December 15, 1941, only days after the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in WWI. The sophomore quickly realized that he was holding a 75-year-old piece of history between his fingers.
Not long after Duc's discovery, he got in touch with the rightful owners of the coveted letter, Greg and Rosemary Almeida. He met them at his school alongside his chemistry teacher, Steve Meredith, and learned more about what he had found on Coastal Cleanup Day.
Greg explained that his father, George Almeida, had written the letter to his mother just before he was shipped off to Europe to fight in the war.
A portion of it read, "I received your telegram yesterday, asking me if I was coming home for Christmas. Well, I won't be able to go home from here, because we are going to ship out before this week is over."
The letter's historical significance and sentimentality had stood the test of time.
Unfortunately, it was stolen out of a storage locker the month prior. Before meeting Duc, Greg thought that the written connection to his father was lost forever.
"I never ever thought I'd get it back again. It was amazing when I first got possession of it. Just seeing his letter, and now that I have it back, we won't put it in any more storage units," Greg jokes.
After handing over the old letter to Greg, Duc explains, "I'm feeling great that it's returned to the right owner. I knew it meant something to someone, so I kept it."
To see Greg get reunited with the letter that meant so much to him, check out the video below!
Finally, please SHARE this amazing story if you're happy there are kids like Duc in this world!
