Hawaii Kai resident Don Hunt showed yesterday the recovered bag, which was found and returned from South Dakota with $700 and credit cards intact.
Good deed averts
bad ending to vacationAn isle couple lost their bag
filled with cash and credit
cards while in South Dakota
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. >> An Oahu couple who lost their travel money on a mainland highway got a taste of the aloha spirit, South Dakota style.
In fact, Nancy and Don Hunt were so impressed by a South Dakota man's efforts to return their lost bag that they wrote a letter to the state's governor.
Gov. Mike Rounds said he was moved by the letter and decided to make it public.
"In a time when most news is when bad things happen, I wanted to give this story recognition," Rounds said.
The Hunts, of East Oahu, and their grandson were passing through Sioux Falls on their way to Fort Robinson in Nebraska. When they arrived at their motel, they noticed Don Hunt's black bag was missing. The bag held $700 in cash and their credit cards.
They had reserved their hotel with a credit card, so they were assured of lodging. But they were soon down to their last $24.
"You go through a lot of emotions. The first one is panic," said Don Hunt.
But there was no need to panic, thanks to David Huber, of Menno, S.D.
Huber said he knew something was wrong when he spotted a black bag in the middle of U.S. Highway 81 near Freeman.
"If that bag was empty, it would have blown off the road," he said.
He opened it and found cash, credit cards and other important material.
He quickly called the Freeman gas station, the Hunts' home and business numbers, their bank in Honolulu, their rental car service and even their credit card company. He told all of them that if the Hunts were looking for their bag, they should call him directly.
Nancy Hunt began retracing their steps and started calling all the possible gas stations where they might have left the bag. She finally got news at the Freeman gas station.
She said she could not believe it when the attendant told her that a man came by, left his home and cell numbers and wanted to give her the bag himself.
"I was stunned," she said yesterday.
She immediately called Huber, and they talked about the day's events.
"He went to a great deal of trouble for folks that he has never met," Hunt said in her letter.
Huber's wife is the postmaster for Menno, and she forwarded the bag to the Hunts, who received it in three days, said Nancy Hunt.
The Hunts wanted to reward Huber with $150, and said he should take it from the bag himself. He refused.
"I felt that they needed it more for their vacation than I did," said Huber.
When the Hunts received their bag, they found a letter from Huber telling them that he only took out what was needed for postage and that they should keep the rest for their vacation.
"That's when I started to cry," said Nancy Hunt.
Since then the Hunts and Hubers have become friends.
Nancy Hunt sent the Huber family a five-page letter telling them about their lives and included family pictures, said Huber.
When Don Hunt got back to Hawaii, he bought children's books, macadamia nuts and local chocolates, along with other souvenirs, and sent them to the Hubers.
"It was just such a wonderful thing," Nancy Hunt said.
