Father goes to Goodwill to buy his son a baseball glove and finds one with his full name written on it
Ryan's wife Megan Hamp called her in-laws to make sure the glove was his.
Sometimes things that were lost have a funny way of finding their way back to us. Megan Hamp (@meganhamp), a mom, shared a once-in-a-lifetime incident that her husband, Ryan, experienced during a random shopping trip. Well, he and their son were looking for baseball mitts at their local Goodwill when they stumbled upon one that Ryan was particularly interested in. As luck would have it, the first mitt Ryan touched had his name on it, but not just his first name, his full name. It was the kind of coincidence that seems almost too incredible to be true. The post, shared on June 12, has received over 34,000 likes on Threads.
Ryan Carney's Mitt
When Ryan asked his son to try on the baseball mitt he picked, never in a million years did he think he would see his name on it. 'Ryan Carney' was written right next to the thumb loop. Ryan could not believe his eyes. After further investigation and questioning, they found out that the mitt actually belonged to him when he was a kid. Megan wrote, "We confirmed with my in-laws that it was the same mitt, donated an unknown number of years before. I am assuming it was bought and then later donated again." It was fate. The mitt came back to Ryan years after it was donated, so he did the only thing he could. Ryan bought it back for his son.
Belief in luck vs. reality
How common is it to come across something you lost years ago? Laura Begley, the editor for Travel + Leisure magazine, said, "I'd say there's about a 50-50 percent chance of getting something back when you lose it... I believe that people are generally good and they want to return things, and if there's a way to return it, they will." Two 'Primetime' producers experimented with losing things across the country. Every item had a phone number attached to it. Of all the 22 items that were 'lost,' they saw a 40% return rate. However, they believed the return rate would be lower had there been no contact number. Although Ryan Carney's baseball mitts weren't lost, he probably had never expected them to return in such a miraculous way. While it isn't certain whether he believes in luck, a 2022 survey conducted by Potawatomi found that 68% of Americans do, but only 38% believe they are lucky.
Lost and found stories
Meanwhile, Megan Hamp asked people to share similar stories in the comment section, and several netizens did. @meeshypie7 shared a photo and commented, "I had a piece of the Berlin Wall that had specific paint splotches on it. I didn’t want someone to mistake it as just a piece of concrete or random rock and toss it out, so I wrote, 'Berlin Wall 1990' on it in permanent marker (the year it was given to me). I remember being so annoyed at the way the B looked. Gave it to a kid 25+ years ago in AZ. It was in the cellar of a house on the river in TN we rented last year. Covered in cobwebs." @dina_mcnatt added, "My mom found my brother’s highchair, from 40 years ago, on Facebook Marketplace. It still has his initials and date of birth under the arm!"
You can follow Megan Hamp (@meganhamp) on Threads for more lifestyle content.
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