Chicago Sun-Times readers help pawn shop owner get savings bonds back to homeless vet
Last week, I was reading an issue of Sunday Sun-Times when I came across a story about Chris Mathis, a Kansas pawnshop owner who was looking for a homeless veteran named Woodrow Wilson Jr. Wilson pawned off a few $100 savings bonds back in the 1980s. Since then, the bonds have fully matured. Since the bonds were sold to the pawn shop fair and square, Mathis had every right to cash them himself. But instead, he decided to return Wilson's bonds - along with the other matured bonds he found in his grandfather's desk - back to the people who sold them.
Mathis hired a private investigator, who was able to figure out that Wilson was homeless and living somewhere in his home town of Chicago... which is where the trail ran cold. There are a lot of homeless people in Chicago, and calling shelters didn't get any leads. So Mathis reahed out to Sun-Times, hoping that he'd get some leads that way.
Now, reading it... I remembered seeing fliers on the West Side a couple of months ago. Something about a homeless veteran. I hate to admit it, but at the time, I didn't give it a second thought. Even though I write for Austin Weekly News, so i could've had a work-related reason to at least try to look into it.
Anyway... Thankfully, the story had a happy ending. As today's Sunday Sun-Times reports, Sun-Times readers recognized Wilson and, with their help, a Sun-Times reporter was able to track him down. And now Wilson - who, turned out, had a girlfriend and a two-year-old daughter, is now $3,000 richer.
via Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times
Now, I do recommend you read the whole thing, because, if nothing else, it really drives home how a few mistakes - and lack of opportunities to try to rebuild one's life after said mistakes - put Wilson int he position he was in.
$3,000 isn't that much, at least on the long run - but for the next few months, it's at least something. And maybe the publicity from the story will get Wilson and his family connected to resources they'd need to have jobs, and a permanent roof over their heads.
(I mean, a freaking two-year-old... I know there are homeless families with young kids - seen them with my own eyes - but damn...)
Mathis hired a private investigator, who was able to figure out that Wilson was homeless and living somewhere in his home town of Chicago... which is where the trail ran cold. There are a lot of homeless people in Chicago, and calling shelters didn't get any leads. So Mathis reahed out to Sun-Times, hoping that he'd get some leads that way.
Now, reading it... I remembered seeing fliers on the West Side a couple of months ago. Something about a homeless veteran. I hate to admit it, but at the time, I didn't give it a second thought. Even though I write for Austin Weekly News, so i could've had a work-related reason to at least try to look into it.
Anyway... Thankfully, the story had a happy ending. As today's Sunday Sun-Times reports, Sun-Times readers recognized Wilson and, with their help, a Sun-Times reporter was able to track him down. And now Wilson - who, turned out, had a girlfriend and a two-year-old daughter, is now $3,000 richer.
via Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times
Now, I do recommend you read the whole thing, because, if nothing else, it really drives home how a few mistakes - and lack of opportunities to try to rebuild one's life after said mistakes - put Wilson int he position he was in.
$3,000 isn't that much, at least on the long run - but for the next few months, it's at least something. And maybe the publicity from the story will get Wilson and his family connected to resources they'd need to have jobs, and a permanent roof over their heads.
(I mean, a freaking two-year-old... I know there are homeless families with young kids - seen them with my own eyes - but damn...)
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