If you lose a wallet and can’t find it for a few decades, that’s usually a sign you won’t see it again. But a 77-year-old former New York Times employee managed to recover a wallet he lost at the paper 40 years ago.

The Times reports a security guard, who was 6 when the man lost his wallet, found it in the Times Square Building, which formerly housed the Times, by searching inside a gap between an unused window and the masonry seal behind it. Back in the day, the wallet owner had left the wallet in the coat pocket in a closet. A thief had found the wallet, pulled out the cash ad stashed it in the spot where the security guard found it.

The guard turned the wallet in to the building’s safety director, who passed it on to a former NYT employee who roamed into the building. The former employee called a reporter who tracked down the wallet’s owner last fall.

What’s the longest it’s taken you to discover a lost item?

A Wallet Lost 40 Years Ago Now Is Found [The New York Times via Neatorama]

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