Precious family keepsake accidentally donated to Goodwill FOUND by woman living 50 miles away



WAUKESHA -- All it took was a keyboard and a kind heart to reunite a family keepsake with its owner -- after a precious item was accidentally donated to Goodwill!

You can find a great bargain at Goodwill stores -- but something irreplaceable, belonging to Heidi Staats was accidentally donated to the store. A tiny flash drive, filled with family photos was discovered by a woman living nearly 50 miles away.

"I was shopping at the Fitchburg Goodwill. I was looking for a box," Molly Szymkowski said.

Molly Szymkowski



Szymkowski said she bought a Hallmark box and found the flash drive inside when she got home.

"I put it in my computer and saw some pictures in there. If it were mine and I lost my flash drive I would be worried or devastated," Szymkowski said.

She turned to Facebook in an effort to locate the owner.



"I put some of the pictures on there and I explained what happened and it about 10 minutes I actually had people responding," Szymkowski said.

Within minutes, people responded -- identifying Staats' parents in the photos.



"That's my dad and his wife Marsha's Christmas card a couple of years ago, so it definitely belongs to my family in some form but not sure how it got there," Staats said.

It turned out, Staats' sister donated the box to Goodwill. Staats said when her sister made the donation, she didn't entirely realize what was being left behind.



Szymkowski sent Staats a message on social media.

"It's very kind of her," Staats said.

Szymkowski mailed the flash drive to Staats.

Heidi Staats



The family was thrilled to have the flash back and all the memories back.

"I'm glad we could keep these memories with us," Staats said.