Lost Handbag Comes Home Via Internet Good Samaritan In Mexico Traces Owner To Spokane

Andrea Schell of Cheney thought she’d never again see the purse she lost on a Mexican beach last month.

But the handbag and its contents are headed north, thanks to a good Samaritan and the Internet.

Schell lost the purse while vacationing in the city of Ixtapa about two weeks ago. Inside the bag were her driver’s license and credit card, among other things.

“I was upset when it happened,” said Schell, a 19-year-old student at Eastern Washington University.

When she couldn’t find the purse, Schell said she canceled the credit card and returned to the Northwest, thinking the bag, which she bought in Mexico, was gone forever.

It likely would have been, if not for the perseverance of a Mexican resident with access to the Internet.

Last week, the Spokane Police Department received e-mail from a Mexican girl identified only as Stefany, who was looking for the owner of a lost handbag.

“I found a driver’s license, a credit card, a traveler check and some Mexican money in a small bag,” the girl wrote. “I looked at it and found that it was from a girl who lived in Liberty Lake. I want to return this stuff to her, but I don’t know where to find her.”

Stefany said she used the Internet to find out that Liberty Lake is near Spokane. “It was hard to find out!” she wrote.

She then got the e-mail address for Spokane police from the department’s Web site and sent her digital plea for help.

“Please let me know if she lives there, or if this is the right place for me to find her,” Stefany wrote. “I don’t know what else to do, and I think I did the right thing.”

Using the information in the e-mail, police tracked down Schell, who moved to Cheney recently, and let her know the handbag was on its way to Spokane County.

Schell said she’ll be glad to get the bag back, although there’s a little problem. Seems someone charged about $450 on her credit card before she could cancel it.

, DataTimes