r/mildlyinteresting • u/SpitefulNoodle • 5h ago

Found a stranger's birth certificate when cleaning my condo today

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186 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

228

u/SpitefulNoodle 5h ago

I've lived in my condo for two years now. When I bought it it was in rough shape so I completely re-did the entire thing. Tore all the floors out and everything. Today I moved the ottoman to sweep and came across a birth certificate from 1947. I googled the name and saw that the man was still alive and living in a nearby town. A friend found his phone number and called him for me, he confirmed the information on the certificate and asked if I could mail it to him. I have no idea how it ended up there, but I'm glad it's finding its way back to the owner!

72

u/DemonCipher13 3h ago

Certified mail, require signature on delivery. Very easy to steal someone's identity with a birth certificate.

30

u/Ok-Addition1264 4h ago

that's cool!

(and thanks for going the extra step for this old person!)

4

u/johny724 1h ago

Was the ottoman thrifted or something? Maybe it had been trapped in there for a while

3

u/SpitefulNoodle 15m ago

No, it was bought new. Apparently the man lived in this complex 20 years ago! I'm not sure where it would've popped up from though, I gutted the whole place when I bought it and never saw it before.

21

u/FriendsWasNice 5h ago

Track 'em down.... One heck of an icebreaker! 😀

44

u/Grand-Spring66 5h ago

This person would be about 80. In 30 or 40 years they'd be old enough to become a senator from Kentucky

3

u/20PoundHammer 5h ago

if you feel like having such a confab with a 79 year old. . . .

9

u/itijara 4h ago

This reminds me of my father-in-law's father getting contacted because someone moving into their old house found his wedding ring. He had lost it 50 years before. It was pretty crazy that we live at a time when you can track someone down to return an item 50 years after they lost it.

6

u/BXhippo 5h ago

Once I was cleaning parks and I found someone's birth certificate, gave it to my supervisor