TORONTO — “It was a gift. He put it in his pocket and got off the subway and it wasn’t in his coat pocket anymore,” said Jessica Squibbs.
A gift with great sentimental value, gone. A red envelope with birthday and Christmas cards inside, along with around $500 worth of Euros and British Pounds.
Jessica and her boyfriend Wes are heading to the UK for six months. Wes is moving there on a work contract and Jessica will be joining him at the end of November.
The trip meant they would be away for Christmas and Wes’ birthday, so his family gathered up some money ahead of time and gifted it to him Thursday night.
When Wes got onto the subway at Dupont station, he put the red envelope in his pocket, but when he got off at St. Andrew station, the envelope was gone.
“He didn’t want to tell them. His response was, ‘My dad worked so hard for that money, gifted it to me and now I have been irresponsible and lost that money,” Squibbs told Global News.
“So he doesn’t know at this point. If we find it then we will tell them the funny story later on, but right now it’s not so funny.”
So began the frantic search to find the envelope and the money.
Jessica and Wes went back to the subway, searching the train, the platform and even the tracks, but still no envelope.
Jessica went to the lost and found and filed a report, hoping the envelope would turn up.
Wes got off at St. Andrew station at 7:30 p.m. and Jessica is hoping someone on the train at the same time found the envelope and is willing to return it.
She even turned to social media hoping someone would respond. People retweeted over 50 times, but still no envelope turned up.
The lost and found at the TTC is packed with stuff.
Tara Mercorillo, who works in the department, said on average they get around 100 items a day.
She said they have received everything from umbrellas, books, bikes, umbrellas, knapsacks, to dentures, scooters, and even prosthetic limbs.
“Anything lost on a bus or a streetcar takes 24 hours to get to us, so one business day,” Mercorillo said.
“It’s a little trickier on the subway as it’s bigger and there are lots of stations so that can take upwards of five business days.”
She also said wallets are a big lost item, the majority which are returned with all of the money inside – an example of Toronto’s Good Samaritans, Mercorillo said.
But the search continues for the red envelope.
Jessica said she does not leave for the UK until the end of November, so she is will be checking in with the TTC on a daily basis hoping someone will turn it in.
“Maybe someone took it home or had a change of heart about returning it or it got tucked away somewhere where nobody can see it and it surfaces at some point,” she said.
“If someone has found it and they turn it in, guaranteed there will be financial support for that person. If it doesn’t turn up then I hope that someone who really needed it found that money and that’s the only way we can put our minds at ease about it, otherwise you just feel really numb.”
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