April Deanhardt, who was since married and changed her name to Bolt, remembers the day when she was 32 years old and her purse was stolen from her in Anderson County, South Carolina. She had left it in a boat and had walked away from it for a moment. That’s when a thief ran over and snagged it up – or so she had thought. Either way, the purse was missing. And that was 25 years ago. But now a young hero has returned her long-lost purse and the now 57-year-old Bolt is blown away!
When an 11-year-old named Brodie Brooks went fishing, he reeled in something heavy – but it wasn’t a fish this time. The young boy caught Bolt’s old purse that she lost two and a half decades ago. He was shocked and then inspired to return it to its former owner.
The boy had found her long lost purse loaded with a lot of belongings. When he opened it up, he couldn’t believe the time capsule he found came upon while fishing for fun.
Even Bolt’s daughter is shocked by the purse. Abby Bolt, her daughter, couldn’t believe all the stuff her mom used to carry around back in the early 1990s.
“It’s quite humorous,” Bolt’s daughter, Abby Bolt, told WYFF, “considering the wallet, perfume, lipsticks, numerous credit cards from stores that were open 25 years ago, family pictures, 52 cents in change, a check book, a teasing comb, etc. — it’s a serious time capsule!”
While fishing in a cove on Lake Hartwell on July 4, the young fisherman couldn’t believe he had found something with so much history. He had only hoped to come upon a mature fish he could show off to his friends and parents. The boy thought his dreams were coming true when he hooked the heavy thing on the end of his line. It was about to snap his line when he finally got it over the surface. However, it wasn’t a fish but a large purse.
“I felt like it was a big fish because it was bobbing my rod up and down and I’d just gotten an Ugly Stik so I was scared I was gonna break my rod. I was scared the line was going to snap,” young Brodie told ABC News.
When the other people the boy was with recognized the woman in the identification card, they couldn’t believe it.
“I told him, ‘You ain’t got no fish, you got a treasure,” Ben Myers, Brodie’s distant relative who fished with him that day. “I’ve been fishing on this lake all my life and that’s the first time I saw something be caught like this on a rod and reel.”
But the maiden name Deanhardt was indisputable. They reached out to a family friend who reached out to Bolt and she was reunited with her long-lost purse.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was lost for words,” Bolt, 49, said. “You never think you’d see it again. I knew somebody must’ve just gotten the cash out and threw it in the lake.”
