AMERY, Wis. - When an 80-year-old man had given up hope on finding his vehicle, after an exhaustive two-day search through parking ramps in downtown St. Paul, a cab driver with an empty back seat and a full heart saved the day.
The Polk County Sheriff's Department said they received a call from the rural Amery man on Sunday, who explained he drove to downtown St. Paul nearly a week earlier to conduct business. He said he parked his vehicle in a ramp then walked several blocks to his appointment. When he returned later that day, he searched parking ramps in the area for roughly five hours but could not remember where his car was parked.
Overwhelmed with frustration and overly tired from the search, the man booked a motel room in the city, with the hopes of searching again in the morning, with more rested eyes and feet.
Polk County officials say the next morning he began a new search but again, could not locate his vehicle. Feeling dog-tired, he decided to hail a cab and head back home to Amery without his car.
Call it fate or perhaps just the spirit of the season, the cab driver who picked him up became determined to help the man after hearing his story. She asked him questions about where his vehicle might be located while he gave her his keys and asked her to keep an eye on it, should she find it. She said she'd do more than keep an eye on it -- she'd actively search for it until it was located.
On Monday, Dec. 11, the cab driver, Sheryl Hanson (who just so happens to be the daughter of the woman who owns All City Cab LLC) was making a second trip through one of at least a dozen parking ramps she had been searching, when she spotted it -- the man's long-lost vehicle.
Sheryl called the man, told him the good news and she and her mother took a trip that afternoon to return the car back home.
The Polk County Sheriff's Department posted the story on its Facebook page, where it quickly garnered hundreds of shares and likes.