Community

Being Neighborly | David goes the extra mile(s)

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On a typically busy recent day, Krystal Gibbs-Stanfield lost some of the contents of her wallet during a shopping trip. But the kindness of several strangers turned around what could have became a bad day.

Gibbs-Stanfield was trying to keep up with three kids while walking through the aisles of the Gig Harbor Home Depot. Her youngest was in a car-shaped cart, while the middle child complained about having to go shopping, she said. 

She placed her combination wallet/phone in the seat of the cart. But at some point, it fell into the bottom of the cart. Gibbs-Stanfield didn’t know it yet, but the worn edges of the wallet split open and the contents spilled out onto the floor of the store. In her attempt to focus on the task at hand — shopping — while also supervising her children, she didn’t notice that the wallet had disappeared.

Krystal Gibbs-Stanfield’s wallet split open, and the contents were lost inside the Gig Harbor Home Depot. A stranger named David found her driver’s license and her bank card, and drove them to her home in Olalla, where she found them in an envelope on her porch when she returned from her shopping trip. His note only said that he found them, and he signed the note, “David.”
Photo courtesy of Krystal Gibbs-Stanfield

She used her husband’s card to pay for the items, so even at the checkout stand she didn’t realize that her items were missing. 

“I had to put the baby in the car seat, and directed my oldest child to put the cart back and grab my phone,” she said. “My daughter came back pale, and said all of the cards were gone.”

Kind strangers, part 1

She was annoyed with herself and worried that she had done something absentmindedly that would compromise her family.

Another shopper noticed her worried expression and told her that they had turned some cards in at the front desk of the store.

Gibbs-Stanfield said that she wants to thank that person. She also wants to thank the employees of Home Depot who called her to let her know the cards had been turned in. But another stranger, named David, was already going the extra mile.

When she went back inside the store, she found that not everything had been found. Some key items — her driver’s license and bank card — were not there.

“After retracing my steps several times, I resigned to going home to call in my card as lost, and setting up an appointment at the DMV,” she said. “By this time I was extremely thankful that most of my lost items had been discovered. Even so, I was still so irritated with myself and was having a hard time moving on.”

An extra kind stranger named David

She loaded her kids into the car and drove home to Olalla, frustrated.

While she was retracing her steps inside the store, a stranger named David had already found them.

“When I got home, there was a note on an envelope by the door,” she said. “The note said, ‘I found these at Home Depot. Thanks, David.’”

Both the bank card and her driver’s license were in the envelope.

“I was absolutely floored,” she said. “Not only had this stranger found them, but they took the time to drive them to my address in Olalla. I had a huge sense of relief and gratitude. My only regret from the situation was that I wasn’t home to thank him personally.”

Gibbs-Stanfield doesn’t know who David is, but she is so thankful for his willingness to drive the cards to her house.

“Whoever he is, it made a huge impression on me,” she said. “David is a reminder to me that kindness from strangers is alive and well.”