She Never Expected The Surprise Inside A $3 Goodwill Bag And The Impact It Would Have

There’s no telling what you might find when visiting a thrift store. While most of the merchandise is simply other people’s used clothes, every now and then, a person stumbles upon something special. One thrift store shopper had no idea what she was in for when she bought a $3 bag. What would happen next was truly something remarkable.

Reselling used clothing is a BIG business

Thrift stores like Goodwill can be fantastic places for finding used clothing and home goods at rock bottom prices. There’s no telling what sort of designer items are hidden among the racks of clothes and just waiting to be picked up. According to Forbes, the resale business of clothing is a $24 billion industry and Sarah Thomas is one of those folks who are all about finding and reselling great thrift store finds.

Clothing donations are always coming in

One of the things that Sarah liked best about her local Goodwill store was that donations were almost constantly flowing in.  Goodwill receives 100 percent of its merchandise from donations and provides jobs for members of the community both in its stores and through smaller resale business offshoots. As Sarah was about to find out, sometimes what you find while thrift store shopping more than meets the eye. 

Bargain hunting like a pro yields a unique find

Being a smart bargain shopper is a skill. You’ve got to know what’s a good find at a good price and what’s better left on the rack. Oregon mother Sarah Thomas knows her way around a thrift store and regularly hits up her local Goodwill several times a week in search of a diamond in the rough. It was on one fateful trip in 2017 though, that Sarah would come across a find unlike any other. 

Could a designer diaper bag be holding a secret?

On one of her routine Goodwill shopping trips, Sarah came across a designer Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag that was in excellent condition. It was gently used and even better, it was only $3. Score! Sarah knew that it would make a perfect item for her reselling business, Sarah’s Southern Oregon 2nd Hand Deals. It was upon returning to her car, however, that Sarah noticed something unusual about this diaper bag. Something was off that she hadn’t noticed in the store. 

A designer bag is hiding something

Sarah was enough of an experienced thrift store shopper that she knew her $3 diaper bag retailed for around $200 brand new. This made the find all that much more appealing to her. Unlike every other bag in the store, though, she could feel that this bag had something inside it. Sarah looked inside, but was surprised by what she saw…

Something heavy was shaking around inside this bag

Sarah looked inside the bag and didn’t see anything. It was strange because she could feel by the weight of the bag that something was most certainly inside of it. “I was cleaning it and just noticed something heavy shaking around in there,” she told the local news station. It could have been anything… illegal drugs, jewels, historical artifacts, who knows!

Sarah spots a strange hole inside the bag

Sarah quickly realized that the object inside the bag was actually hidden inside the bag’s lining. This instantly made her even more curious about what it could be! After looking closer, Sarah saw that there was a small hole in the bag’s lining and something silver inside was catching the light’s reflection.

Curiosity takes over. What’s in the bag?!

Whatever was in the bag’s lining definitely, wasn’t part of the diaper bag’s original design. Sarah reached behind the bag’s lining and pulled out the heavy object that had been the source of this mystery. It was a small blue Sony camera. Something like this was definitely a bargain bonus, but the mystery for Sarah had really only just begun.

A press of the button sends Sarah deeper down the rabbit hole

Sarah wasn’t sure if the camera would even work, but to her surprise, a simple press of the power button and it instantly turned on. Now a lot of people might be apprehensive about looking through a stranger’s photos, but curiosity is a powerful thing. It didn’t take long for Sarah to begin clicking through the photos and she was touched by what she saw. After scrolling through a few, the Oregon bargain hunter knew she had to do something.

A mother’s lost memories pull at Sarah’s heartstrings

Sarah clicked through the digital camera’s photos and saw photo after photo of a mother and her child. Being a parent herself, Sarah knew that the mother would want these precious memories back. “It might not be much, but it is to somebody,” she said. If it were her camera, she would want somebody to return this treasure and so she set out to find a way to do just that.  But how could she go about finding a completely unknown stranger?

Putting out the call

Finding the owner of this lost camera and returning these personal photos of a child and mother to the owner was going to be challenging, but Sarah knew she had to try. Simply putting up a lost and found poster wasn’t going to work. Thankfully, Sarah had been slowly growing the Facebook fan page of her online business and she thought people on social media might be willing to help. She uploaded a few photos from the camera’s memory card and hoped for the best. It was a long shot, but she had to try.

Finding this mother was like looking for a needle in a haystack

The camera could have belonged to a mother on the other side of the country… or even the world! Sarah put up a post on her store’s Facebook page explaining what she had found. “Does anyone know who this family or people in these pictures are?” read the post. “I want to make sure they get their camera and most definitely their SD card.” All she could do now was wait and see if anybody reached out. 

Social media goes to work and the mystery woman is found

Sarah thought that posting a few photos from the camera would help. Potential leads started to roll in and it looked like there was a chance this camera might find its owner after all. Then it happened! Somebody on Facebook said that they recognized the woman in the photos and gave Sarah a name!

Reaching out to a stranger

Somebody on Facebook identified the woman as Katie Connor. At last, Sarah had discovered the identity of this mystery woman and could go about getting her camera and those precious photos back to her. The amazing thing is that it only took Sarah’s Facebook followers an hour to identify her. Now all that was left to do was track down Katie and return her camera to her.