JAMUL, Calif. (KGTV) - A doorbell camera captured a moment of surprise hours after a San Diego-area family thought a wallet packed with cash and gift cards was lost.
Early in the evening last Tuesday, outside her home in Jamul, video shows Rachel Kitchin greeting two strangers at the door.
A few hours earlier, her 23-year-old son Parker, who recently graduated from San Diego State University, had lunch with his girlfriend at Liberty Station.
On his drive home, he realized his wallet was missing.
“I was pretty upset, and I was feeling really stressed out,” he said.
Inside his wallet: his driver’s license, credit cards, his social security card, and $600 in cash and hundred of dollars in gift cards he received from Christmas and his graduation. He was carrying his social security card because he was about to start a new job.
Parker went back to where he had been sitting, but he didn't find it.
Hours later, as he sat inside a police station filing a report, Alicia Lyons and her husband were at his door, with his wallet.
His mom was beyond excited.
“Stop it! … I literally want to cry right now,“ exclaimed Rachel Kitchin, who could be seen on their doorbell camera.
Lyons says she had been at Liberty station with her twin baby boys, her 12-year-old daughter and her daughter’s friend.
Lyons says they were having lunch when her daughter's friend saw the wallet under a chair. They searched the area but didn't spot Parker.
Soon after, she and her husband looked at the driver’s license, realized Parker lived a few minutes from their own home and decided to drop it off.
“I was overjoyed. Really, how often do you get to help out someone in a pinch?” said Lyons.
Moments, later, Parker got word.
“I immediately felt the stress off my shoulders. Just very thankful to them,” he said.
“They’ve inspired people to be kind to others. It’s been an ugly world recently, and they brought kindness and love. Incredible,” said Kitchin.
Rachel says the Lyons family initially refused a $100 reward, but they finally accepted it after her husband threatened to burn the money if they didn't take it.
This story was originally reported by Michael Chen on 10news.com.
