Wallet travelled 150,000 miles under Ford Edge's bonnet after it vanished 10 years ago

A retired automotive employee was staggered after a wallet he lost more than 10 years ago turned up - having travelled more than 150,000 miles away under the bonnet of acar he had been working on.

Richard Guilford lost his tri-fold wallet when he was assembling cars at a Ford factory in late 2014. He suspected it fell out of his shirt pocket and, though Richard searched 30 to 40 cars and his co-workers looked at dozens more, the leather accessory wasn't found.

But last month, Richard received a message from a stranger on Facebook, claiming he had discovered the wallet — complete with the $15 (approximately £10), driver's licence, work ID and gift cards worth $275 (£200) inside - beside the engine of a Ford Edge. Chad Volk, a mechanic in Lake Crystal, Minnesota, described the find as "crazy" and was delighted to be able to post it to Richard, who lives some 700 miles away in Petersburg, Michigan.

The Ford Edge, which a customer had left at Chad's repair shop, had 151,000 miles on the clock, all of which completed with the wallet wedged between the transmission and the air filter box.

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Speaking yesterday, Richard, 56, said: "It restores your faith in humanity that people will say, 'Hey, you lost this, I found this, I’m going to get it back to you'. Chad noticed Richard's Facebook profile listed his time at Ford, a role from which he retired only last year. Chad messaged a photo of the wallet and included the driver's licence.

Richard, who has two sons, continued: "The amazing part to me was it was so protected. Think about this: 11 years, rain, snow. It was in Minnesota, for crying out loud. It was in Arizona when it was bought. Think about how hot a transmission gets in Arizona driving down the road. That's incredible."

The dad said he will now treasure the wallet, which was a Christmas present in the early 2010s. The majority of the gift cards were for Cabela's, an outdoor retailer, which said they remain valid. Richard, a part-time auctioneer, also had lottery tickets in the wallet, but the numbers had worn away in the decade since he bought them.

"I'm going to put everything back in it and leave it just like it is, and it's gonna sit at the house in the china cabinet and that’s for my kids. They can tell my great-grandkids about it. We're big into stories. I like tellin’ stories. That's just who I am," said the retired automotive worker.

Yet Richard, known as "Big Red" during his time at Ford due to his red-tinged beard, had long forgotten about the wallet years before Chad's message arrived on social media. Since the discovery though, a Ford spokesperson described it as "a repair that’s right on the money," adding: "Can you imagine the odds?"