Reilly Flaherty lost his wallet a few weeks ago, while at a Wilco concert in Brooklyn and assumed that all of its contents: IDs, credit cards and cash were gone for good.
Flaherty did what most people would do in this situation — he canceled his credit cards and replaced his driver’s license. You think that would be the end to his ordeal, but a week and half later he received an envelope containing a handwritten note in the mail.
Flaherty posted the thief’s note on his Instagram account and captioned it, “thanks… I think?”
The letter read,
“I found your wallet, and your drivers license had your address so here’s your credit cards and other important stuff. I kept the cash because I needed weed, the MetroCard because, well, the fare’s $2.75 now, and the wallet ’cause it’s kinda cool. Enjoy the rest of your day. Toodles, Anonymous.”
Flaherty tells CNN he was initially terrified when he received the unmarked letter.
“I’m horrified. This person knows where I sleep, knows where I get my mail.”
“This person knows everything about me.”
Flaherty says he hasn’t filed a police report, but writes on Instagram that “there is a serial wallet theft spree going on in the streets of New York and no one is talking about it.”
But since Flaherty published the anonymous letter, he has received a lot attention from many news agencies around the world.
“I think what people are finding that this is a pretty humorous, quintessential New York story of this person who goes 50% with trying to have a nice deed but ends up coming off with an asterisk at the end,” Flaherty says.