WWII documents found at Edmond Goodwill, returned to family

EDMOND, Okla. (KFOR) - Employees at a Goodwill in Edmond made quite the discovery during a routine inspection.

According to Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma, employees found a lid compartment filled with a Navy soldier's discharge papers from 1947, multiple medals and a signed letter by then-President Truman. All of which seems to be untouched for decades.

“Based on the condition of the lockbox and the papers, we were confident the person who donated these items likely did not know about the existence of the compartment or the documents,” Assistant Store Manager Katie Duer said.

Officials say information on the discharge papers along with some research allowed employees to find a living relative in the area. The items were then returned to the soldier's family over the Fourth of July weekend.

“Over the past year, we’ve been able to reunite several customers and donors with their items and it's always a great feeling to be able to do that,” Director of Donated Goods Retail Dianne Beltz said.

This comes after the nonprofit ShopGoodwill team returned an OU class ring and an award-winning ARPA rodeo belt buckle to their owners after they had been mistakenly donated.

"The first 24 hours are usually the most critical,” Beltz added. “If we can track an item back to the store location at which it was donated and catch it before it enters our central warehouse – there are good chances our team is able to find it."