Lost in US eight months ago, wallet back with owner in Punjab's Batala

Tribune News Service

Ravi Dhaliwal

Batala, October 15

For a Batala-based surgeon, it turned out to be a red letter day today when an unknown man showed up at his residence and handed him his wallet which he had lost eight months ago while on a trip to the US. The purse contained Rs 40,000 and important documents when it had gone missing. Today, everything was found to be intact.

In February, while on a visit to his daughter in Los Angeles, Dr Satnam Singh Nijjar had lost his wallet during his morning walk. His family combed the area for the wallet, but in vain. The doctor then returned to India. New documents were prepared and the story ended there. “When wealth is lost nothing is lost, when health is lost something is lost but when your documents are lost everything is lost,” he would often tell his family.

One morning, an attorney, Scott C. Smith, who lives near Dr Nijjar’s daughter’s residence found the purse, while he was on a stroll. Taking a cue from the doctor’s photograph on the PAN card, Smith walked over to the North Vermont Gurdwara and handed it over to Granthi (priest) Sarabjit Singh.

Doing his part, whenever a Punjabi would walk in to pay obeisance, Sarabjit would show him the PAN card. He would also inquire if the person recognised the “Sikh in the photo.” Six months passed but success eluded him. Nevertheless, he kept trying. “You have to go down a lot of wrong roads before you find the right one,” he said.

Finally, Sarabjit decided to visit his hometown Jalandhar this week. The first thing he did on his arrival was to visit the local income tax office to locate Nijjar’s address. Once he got the details, he sent his brother Gurpreet Singh to Batala and asked him to click pictures to send to Smith.

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