Litter picker reunites mum with baby scans lost in stolen handbag 12 years ago
A litter picker has reunited a mum with the ultrasound pictures of her eldest son which were stolen along with her handbag more than ten years ago.
Shiela Gibson has been removing rubbish from the sides of the roads in Gravesend, Kent, for a little over three years.
When she discovered a handbag during her good deed, she went rifling through its contents to see if there were any clues to its owner.
She discovered items belonging to Jean McNeilly, a 48-year-old who lived just along the road – and who had her handbag stolen from her home in 2012.
And among the usual contents were some very precious items: the baby scan photos of Jean’s now 16-year-old son Ben.
Jean said: ‘I never thought I would see those photos again.
‘I hadn’t forgotten about them. You still remember the incident but I was just in disbelief that Sheila found them and they were still intact.
‘It never crossed my mind that they would reappear.’
Sheila and Jean met up shortly afterwards and exchanged the pictures, with Ben even posing for a photo with his earliest self.
The litter picker said she had originally thought she had uncovered a workman’s toolbag at first, due to the way the leather had hardened over the past 12 years.
‘Then I noticed something shiny and opened it,’ she said.
‘I knew I had to find the lady who they belonged to, because they are obviously very special.’
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