In this case, one man's trash really was another man's treasure.
After Nevada Smith drove away from a Portsmouth parking lot last month with his family photo album on top of his Dodge minivan, he suspected that the album had not lasted long on the vehicle's slippery roof.
That evening, Aug. 26, Alonzo Sparrow was walking in Portsmouth near the turn lane that goes into the Downtown Tunnel. He spotted the white album in the gutter near a picture of what he said was a beautiful woman. Sparrow, who told his story to The Virginian-Pilot after later seeing an article about the lost album, said he tucked the photo in the book and, not knowing what else to do, put it in a nearby trash can beside a bus stop on Court Street. Then he walked back to his sister's house.
Still later that day, another man sat at that same bus stop, Smith said. With nothing to do and time on his hands, he looked into the trash can hoping to find a newspaper.
When he pulled a paper out, he saw the photo album underneath.
He took the album on the bus ride home to Norfolk and, days later, took it to a branch of the Public Library, asking the staff to keep it in case someone came looking for it.
On Tuesday - a month after his find - he saw the article in The Pilot telling the story of Smith, a lieutenant commander and search-and-rescue pilot in the Coast Guard, and the heirloom album he had asked his mother to send from Roscoe, Ill. He had wanted to copy some pictures and use them to illustrate a book his grandfather had written about his experiences in the Marine Corps in World War II.
The man went back to the library, retrieved the album he had found, and called Smith about 11 p.m. Wednesday.
"The call woke me up," Smith said. "So I go downstairs, check the number and don't recognize it, and he doesn't leave a message."
For a second, Smith nearly let it go. Lots of people had called him in the days after the story was published. None led him to his book.
"I called him back," Smith said, "and an old man answers and he says, "I've got an album.' "
Skeptical, Smith posed questions until the man said one of the pictures had been taken in Morrisonville, Ill.
"I immediately got cotton mouth and my hair shoots up on my head," Smith said.
He hopped into his car, stopped for a fill-up and at an ATM, and then surprised the man at midnight with the $250 reward that Smith had promised on fliers he'd placed all over Portsmouth.
The man who found Smith's album lives in a retirement home in Norfolk and could not believe his windfall.
The album finder, who told Smith he'd like to remain anonymous, spent time both in the Air Force and the Marine Corps and had an uncle in the Marines who fought on Okinawa, just as Smith's grandfather had.
"It was a pretty weird coincidence," said Smith, who said he'd never been so abruptly happy in his life.
Krys Stefansky, (757) 446-2732, krys.stefansky@pilotonline.com
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Blessings to the Norfolk Public Library
I think the Library should be given some credit for holding onto the album for a month and being able to retrieve it when the gentleman came back for it. Not many places would be that meticulous. What a miraculous series of events for this family.
How awesome
I wish we had more stories like this. I know there is good out there and stuff like this should be reported more often. Thank you to the two good men who found the album and showed there is good in all of us!!!
Praise God!
For bringing those people to your album, and keeping that album from being destroyed. The events of this story are almost unbelievable in th way the album was noticed, found, and carried to the next person in this incredible chain of events.
We have a wonderful Father.
Just Amazing!
I read the original article earlier this week and my heart just totally went out to him. It really goes to show that there are still good people in this world. With all the negative news the past few weeks, this really was a feel good story! So glad he has his priceless treasure back where it belongs!
Nevrock, Thank you!
If anyone deserves to get as lucky as this, its you. I am so happy that you were able to get a significant piece of your family's history back, that, in many circumstances, would have been lost forever.
What a wonderful testament to a society that never gets any credit.
You have a person looking for a break one way or another in the trash, he finds something that he recognize as important, follows up when he probably doesn't think anything is going to come of it, and in the end, recieves a reward which probably, in the long run, was less rewarding than giving you back a piece of your heritage.
Please be sure to print this story and save it with your history. This, by all means, is a wonderful tribute to a tumultuous 2008 that so many people are looking forward to forgetting. It will be a long time before I forget this story. Thanks so much for following up.
If you don't subscribe to the Pilot and can't get the
THE REST OF THE STORY - FROM NEVADA SMITH
First VA PILOT article was published on 23 Sept. I received 2 phone calls from the same family regarding a man that found the album and threw it in the trash. "Tommy and Rumble" (radio show on 99FM) helped me obtain information about how garbage gets collected from Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) bus stops - where the album was disposed of. All this info had no results however. I stopped my search on 24 September and called my Mom to tell her the horrible news. It was a giant bummer. Talked for an hour to tell her what I had done to recover the album. She told me to get on with my life and that I had suffered enough. Then I went to High Street and took down all the flyers and told the business people that I deeply appreciated their support. It was the saddest day of the saddest month of my life. I had single-handedly wiped out a giant portion of my family's history. Later that night another man called me and said he had the album. I cried and cried when he told me. I drove down and gave him the $250 bucks. He said he had found it in the trash and took it to the Norfolk Library then retrived it after he read the original article. I stayed up all night that night. I called my Dad in IL a
It's so nice to read GOOD news!
What a lovely ending to the story! It's wonderful when things work out for the best.
Wonderful ending to this story
But I am curious as to how the reporter found out about Alonzo Sparrow, since it was the other anonymous finder who found the album in the trash, took it to the library and then retrieved it to notify LCDR Smith.
Could the reporter enlighten us on this point?
Inquiring mind wants to know!
wonderful!
How wonderful! Goes to show there are good people in this world! Just one question...will he ever tell his mother now that the book has been found?