2 women spotted a stranger rummaging through a purse on a bench. Their timely intervention left a tourist thanking them in tears
Losing valuable belongings during a trip can be really scary and panic-inducing. However, one Michigan woman who lost her purse during a trip to Chicago didn't know that two complete strangers would step in to help her. The woman, Lavonne Schaafsma, had accidentally left her purse behind on a bench during an outing. She was really panicked when she realized that she no longer had her purse. However, two women had acted on instinct when they saw a man going through a black purse and saved the woman a lot of hassle, per Hidden Brain Media.
Lavonne didn't get a chance to meet the two women who saved the day for her, so she thanked them with the help of the outlet and hoped her message would reach them. "I can't even express to you how much you have changed my life," she expressed to the women. Lavonne had an appointment in Chicago on that day. As she had some extra time at hand, she decided to look around and visit some places. At one point, she sat on a park bench in Millennium Park. The woman left the spot some time later, but she hadn't realized that she had left her purse behind on the bench itself. She was really worried afterwards because her purse had important things like her ID, credit cards, medication, car keys and cash.
She tried to find her purse, but her efforts were in vain. "After a while, I found myself in front of the Millennium Park gift shop and I don't know why, but I decided to walk in and just see if maybe someone had turned in my purse." Her intuition actually proved to be right. She asked the cashier if anyone had turned in a black purse at the shop. The cashier fished out a purse and asked the woman if it was hers. The moment the woman saw her purse, she was really relieved and started crying because of overwhelm. "All my anxiety came out." The cashier told her that there was much more to the story. Two women had come into the store with the purse.
The two of them were walking in the park when they noticed that a man was sitting on the park bench with a black purse. He was "rummaging" through it and the women felt that there was something suspicious about what the man was doing. They walked up to the man and asked him if the purse was his. The man told them, "Yeah, my wife lost it. I was looking for it." The two women refused to believe the man and told him that the purse was theirs. They "wrestled" the purse out of his hands and spotted a security guard near the gift shop. They immediately decided to walk inside and wait for the purse's owner to come find it.
They waited for quite some time to hand over the purse personally. But then they eventually turned it in and left. "Five minutes later, I walked in, asking for the purse," Lavonne recounted. "These women, whom I don't know, saved me hours and hours of work canceling credit cards. They rescued me from massive anxiety and I never got to thank them." She really wished to thank them for their courage and for noticing that "something was off." She was also glad that they put in an effort "on behalf of a stranger who wasn't even present." She ended the message with, "Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."