Even though it’s Christmas time and most people are afflicted with a festive spirit, Rilee Sharpe still found herself unprepared when she met the man who found her lost wallet on the weekend.
“I just had to smile, I couldn’t help myself,” the 21-year-old Ladner resident says.
Sharpe was smiling because her good Samaritan, Thomas Burke, was not only dressed like Santa but looked like him too. He even came bearing a card and gift for Sharpe.
“The kids in the coffee shop got all excited and were saying Santa’s here,” Sharpe says. “And he was so jolly and saying ‘ho’, ‘ho’, ‘ho’ to everyone.”
On Friday night Sharpe isn’t sure where she lost her wallet but it was sometime during her travels through downtown Vancouver. When Sharpe realized her wallet was missing, she returned to the area to try to find it but came up empty.
Saint Nicholas ended up stumbling upon Sharpe’s wallet on his way home from a Santa show, near the Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station. The small amount of cash was gone but all her ID and credit cards were still inside.
The next day Sharpe got a call from her bank saying a man had found her wallet and left his contact information. Sharpe connected with Burke and set a place and time to meet on Sunday.
That’s when Santa came walking in and startled Sharpe with his kindness.
“I was still in shock that someone had not only found my wallet but was returning it to me,” she says. “It was so wonderful because I’m going on a trip in January and would have been without my ID and credit cards.”
Burke, who is a retired furniture mover and truck driver, has been playing Santa in the Lower Mainland for five years. He also has had firsthand experience in losing a wallet but in his case, he also had his identity stolen in the process.
Burke and Sharpe chatted over coffee and discovered they both work with children – he as a volunteer Santa, and she as a Special Education teacher’s assistant.
“It was just so wonderful because I have friends that have lost their wallets and never had them returned,” Sharpe explains.
For Burke, he says “it’s always the little things that make people take notice” and that “it made him feel good to help someone out.”
For her, the message inside the Christmas card Burke gave her really resonated.
Just Believe
Good things will come true,
Santa Claus
“All of this has just restored my faith in humanity… I really needed that,” Sharpe says.
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