Through acts callous and kind, keepsakes back with family

This is a story about a guilty conscience and a rather clumsy attempt to make amends for a Spokane burglary.

What matters most, however, is that Kathleen Sullivan’s loved ones have recovered some of the precious keepsakes they thought had been lost forever.

“My only regret is that Mom isn’t around for this,” said Kathleen Sullivan, who is named after her mother and lives in Bainbridge Island, Wash.

“She would have loved it.”

Kathleen Hennessey Sullivan died Feb. 24, 2008, following a brief illness.

She was 84.

I learned a bit about this woman over the past few days. She loved playing bridge at her golf club. She devoured books at the library. She entertained and was devoted to being a full-time grandmother.

I think she would have gotten a huge kick out of this unusual outcome to the crime that occurred at her South Hill duplex.

That happened in the late summer of 2007. Kathleen was away at the lake when thieves broke in.

They rifled though her belongings, taking jewelry, personal items and prescription drugs. They would have grabbed a lot more were it not for Sullivan’s landlord, Hazel Wolfrum.

Spying an open door and hearing voices, Wolfrum hollered inside.

The voices suddenly ceased.

While the landlord sought help, the burglars bolted out a bathroom window. They made their getaway in Sullivan’s car, which was later found abandoned just a few blocks away.

“She was a tough Irish Catholic lady,” says Kathleen of her mother. “She determined right away that she was not going to let (the burglary) get her down.”

All the Sullivans moved on, in fact, until a mysterious package turned up Thursday at the Rosauers supermarket at 14th Avenue and Lincoln Street.

This was no ordinary delivery. A South Hill resident carried in the parcel as a good deed.

The package was addressed to the store’s pharmacy. But because the postage didn’t fit the Postal Service’s mailing requirements, it had been sent back to the return name and address that appeared on the box.

Which, as the resident explained, was an incorrect name with the address.

That made Steve Mickelson, the store’s assistant manager, a little nervous.

Soon cops were on the scene. A bomb squad member scanned the package with a portable X-ray machine. The parcel was eventually slit open in Mickelson’s office to reveal a number of personal items and an empty pill bottle with Kathleen Sullivan’s name on it.

Oh, yeah. And there was an unsigned, typewritten letter:

“Hello,

“I came into possession of these items through a friend of a friend of a … Anyway, when I saw what was here, I was appalled that a person would be so calloused and ignorant as to take what were obviously precious keepsakes.

“I have no way to return these things except to give them to you with the hope that you will be able to contact Ms. Sullivan.

“I so hope that this may return to her some peace of mind. Thank you.”

“I’ve been with Rosauers 37 years and I’ve never seen anything this crazy,” Mickelson said.

Things moved pretty quickly after that. Police went to the address listed on the pill bottle.

The new tenant at Sullivan’s former duplex referred them to Wolfrum, who lives right next door. She had a number for Sullivan’s namesake.

During a phone interview, the daughter described what had been returned.

Three charm bracelets that can now go to granddaughters. Two silver picture frames, one containing an heirloom photograph of the late Sullivan’s grandmother.

Two vintage campaign buttons, both in support of long-gone Democrats. Some pieces of costume jewelry that Kathleen’s husband, Patrick, gave her back in the 1950s.

Two angel pins Sullivan loved to wear. Two Expo ’74 souvenir pins.

“This is so appreciated,” said Sullivan. “My brother (Dan) was almost in tears when I read him the letter.”

“This is a grand act.”