A childhood baseball glove lost 40 years ago made its way from a family’s hometown in Ohio to a Goodwill store in Palm Beach County.
“I just walked in and there sitting on the edge of a shelf on the bottom shelf was this mitt, sitting so that I could see the name, 'Christopher Lisi' on it," Julie Anne Lisi said.
Julie Anne and Mike Lisi, from Ohio, are spending time in their home in Tequesta this month. They were visiting Goodwill in Jupiter on Indiantown Road for senior day on Wednesday when Julie Anne spotted the mitt with her son's name on it in his own handwriting. She also noticed her own handwriting just inside of it.
"My knees got wobbly and I got weak and scared," Julie Anne said.
An emotional Julie Anne called over her husband to show him her discovery.
"She was in tears, shaking then she showed me the glove and I understood," Mike said.
Julie Anne took a picture of the glove and texted it to her son Christopher.
"He texted back, 'Buy it,'” she said.
Sue Rounds, a cashier at Goodwill, rung up the priceless childhood mitt for $1.49.
"A lady came to the register and I asked her and I said, 'How are you?' She said, 'I’m shaking,'" Rounds said. "I said. 'What’s wrong?' She said, 'The glove!'”
The biggest question now is how did the mitt end up at a Jupiter Goodwill? After it turned up, Christopher told his parents he lost it after a championship baseball game in 1978 when he was 12 years old. He had hit two home runs during that game. He lost the glove afterward and hadn't seen it since.
“He had won the championship and in the hullaballoo and the handing out of trophies he probably set it down on a bench and somebody walked away with it," Mike said.
Julie Anne said she has donated to Goodwill before, but she has only donated used books. Even then, she's donated those up in Ohio because that's where their longtime house, and subsequent clutter from over the years, is located.
A Goodwill representative said the company doesn't track specific items, but they do move them from store to store if they're not selling.
Julie Anne hopes to figure out how exactly the glove made its way down the country.
“To me, it’s a miracle," Julie Anne said.
