Credit Card Without Magnetic Strip and Black-and-White Family Photo... How Was a Wallet Lost 65 Years Ago Found?

Wallet Owner Died 18 Years Ago
Daughter Says "It Feels Like Mother Has Come Back to Life"

A woman in the United States recovered a wallet she lost in a movie theater in the 1950s, which was found after 65 years and returned to her descendants.

According to CNN and other U.S. media on the 23rd (local time), the Plaza Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, discovered a faded burgundy wallet while demolishing a wall during restroom renovations last October. The wallet, believed to have left its owner’s hands in 1958, contained a 1959 Chevrolet car raffle ticket, an early credit card without a magnetic stripe, black-and-white family photos, a gas station receipt, a medical appointment slip, and a library card, all intact.

A wallet recently discovered after 65 years at the Plaza Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, returned to the owner's family
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Plaza Theater is the oldest operating movie theater in Atlanta and a landmark of the city. During the renovation, many old items such as long-standing popcorn displays and discontinued liquor bottles were uncovered, but finding this wallet, which saw the light after 65 years, was a special event.

The theater owner, Chris Escobar, said, "The wallet was a 'gateway' to the past," and added, "Knowing it was lost by someone who lived nearby, I decided to return it to its owner." Escobar, along with his wife Nicole, began searching for the owner based on the name "Floy Culbreath" on the license inside the wallet.

Nicole found an obituary for Floy’s husband, Roy Culbreath, through an internet search. This led them to trace the Culbreath family’s whereabouts. Floy was a founding member of the United Cerebral Palsy Atlanta chapter, which established the city’s first daycare center for children with cerebral palsy. Additionally, the Culbreath grandchildren hold an annual charity golf tournament called the "Culbreath Cup" every October to honor their grandparents’ donation commitments. Escobar eventually contacted Floy’s daughter, Thea Chamberlain.

According to local media, Floy, the wallet’s owner, passed away in 2005 at the age of 87. Fortunately, her daughter Chamberlain lived not far from the theater. Chamberlain was six years old when her mother lost the wallet in 1958 and is now 71 years old.

Chamberlain confirmed that the wallet and its contents definitely belonged to her mother. She said it was "very moving" to recover her mother’s wallet after 65 years, expressing, "Memories flooded back, and it felt as if my mother had come back to life." Recently, Floy’s descendants gathered to see the wallet. Chamberlain, examining her mother’s traces with her seven- and five-year-old grandchildren, said, "It was a very special moment. The grandchildren also understand that these items are precious."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.