But after placing the satchel on the trunk of his car recently while he and his wife were preparing to drive off, he forgot it was there, only to become aware of the loss after the items had fallen into the street.

Determined to recover the valuable items, Stevenson placed a classified ad in The Examiner, and the satchel was eventually found—not far from his home—by André Bélanger, the Canada Post mailman who serves his neighbourhood.

"I'm sure you would agree that most people finding such an interesting package would not necessarily report it," said Catherine Lortie, a spokeswoman for Canada Post in Montreal.

Stevenson said he was "astonished at the honesty, because there was a watch in that ... It's a nice-looking watch and it would have been a temptation for anybody."

Stevenson had been working in his garage when he decided to place the package on the car trunk, where he thought he'd see it before driving off. "I figured even if I don't, anybody who's going out in the car will have to walk past that side," he said. "But my wife found another way around. She often does and I forgot."

In their search for the lost satchel, Stevenson said he and his wife decided to take out classified ads in several other newspapers, without any luck. They also tried to retrace where it might have fallen off. "We had walked down the hill trying to find it, figuring that at the first corner it would have slipped off, but we didn't find anything."

He soon received a phone call from Monica King at The Examiner, informing him that Yannick Dion, a supervisor at the central post office downtown on Peel Street, had the satchel which had been turned in by Bélanger.

King had received a call that day from Dion, who informed her that a letter carrier had turned in the satchel. She suggested he place a classified ad and gave him the phone number.

“That afternoon, I called our classified office (in the West Island) to see if the ad had been placed,” said King. “They had not received it, but they informed me that someone in Westmount who had lost a hearing aid had called to place an ad. They gave me Mr. Stevenson’s name and number, and I called him to tell him to call Mr. Dion right away.”

Stevenson described the feeling when he realized his good fortune. "Very much relieved," he said. "It was very expensive stuff, a highly-technical aid system ... I could use it in crowds and so on." Although the devices were insured, he had not received confirmation from the insurer.

By Martin C. Barry
http://www.westmountexaminer.com/pages/article.php?noArticle=20780