Nearly 4 years after a man lost his wallet on a ride at Hersheypark, it is returned to him

After four years, a man who lost his wallet at Hersheypark is finally reunited with it and its contents. (Photo: ABC 27)
After four years, a man who lost his wallet at Hersheypark is finally reunited with it and its contents. (Photo: ABC 27)

Hersheypark proved itself to be the “sweetest place on earth” in a multitude of ways after a man was reunited with his wallet and all of its contents — nearly four years after he initially lost it.

SkyRush, the amusement park’s tallest and fastest roller coaster, has a reputation. “This is a very active ride,” the sign outside of the coaster warns. “Items will fall out of pockets.”

Sure enough, the patriarch of the Hersheypark-loving Anson family, Jon, realized his wallet was missing right after riding the 200-foot roller coaster. “At the end, I’m walking down the steps and I just happen to pat my side … and no wallet,” he told Harrisburg, Pa., news station WHTM. “It was gone.”

After years had gone by, and a few trips by the Ansons to the park later, the missing wallet became an inside joke for the Ansons. “We don’t go to Hersheypark and don’t mention the missing wallet,” Jen, Jon’s wife, said.

Their children, including 10-year-old Abby, 8-year-old Katie and 6-year-old Matthew, would look in the river and the bushes every time the family visited, each hoping to be the one who found their father’s wallet.

“God love ’em, they actually think they’re going to find it and they really look hard for it,” Jon told the news station. “So when I got the call that someone actually found it, I just laughed out loud.”

“I’m pretty disappointed,” Matthew said. “Now we can’t do the funny story where they say, ‘Kids, look for my wallet in the bushes’ and that stuff.”

Shaun Cooney of Hersheypark and his team find missing items every day and always try to reunite them with the rightful owners. Finally, they were able to return a moldy wallet to Jon, including his credit cards, Hersheypark passes and gift cards, with $25 for a bookstore, one for a local golf center, and a Starbucks card worth 87 cents.

“It restores your faith in humanity a little bit that things will be found … that people will turn something in and someone will follow through with their job and call you,” Jen said.

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