View Photos of Reunion
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit (NYCT) President Richard Davey today commended Veronica Santana and the entire NYCT Lost and Found team for their heroic efforts to reunite a World War II heirloom with its family.
Santana, who handles lost wallets and identification cards for the Lost and Found, was working through her pile last Tuesday, June 13, when she came across a Naval ID for Naval Aviator Robert Carroll from the 1940s. The ID card was turned in at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Downtown Brooklyn before being shipped to the NYCT Lost and Found office at Penn Station.
“Moments this unique and special do not happen often, but they do provide a great insight into the important daily work of New York City Transit’s Lost and Found team,” said NYC Transit President Richard Davey. “The effort Veronica and the team made to ensure this special family heirloom was returned home speaks volumes to how they approach their jobs and embodies the type of customer service Transit strives for every day.”
Santana, who comes from an army family, took a personal interest in getting this Naval ID back with its next-of-kin. Santana and the Lost and Found team called various branches of the military, searched all over the internet, looking for some type of contact information for next-of-kin to get the heirloom back home. That is when Santana found a Facebook post from Stephanie Carroll, the daughter of Naval Aviator Robert Carroll.
Carroll brought her father’s Naval ID to a special showing of Top Gun: Maverick last fall for veterans in Upper Manhattan, which is the last time Carroll thought she would see the heirloom after being unable to locate it in her hotel room. Carroll then posted the picture of the ID that night on Facebook, the post Santana would use to validate that she found the right family member.
During a stop-in visit to the Lost and Found, NYCT President Davey was pulled aside by Santana who told Davey the full story of this discovery. That is when Davey’s office performed outreach of their own and connected with Carroll, setting the stage for the reunion of the heirloom and the meeting between Santana and Carroll at Penn Station.
The two met each other on Friday, June 23, and the heirloom of the Carroll family returned home to Stephanie Carroll.
“I lost this months ago in the fall and I thought I would never see it again,” said Carroll. “I was showing it to people [at the Top Gun: Maverick viewing]. I showed it to producers and actors, they were interested to see it, and then I went to show it to someone and it was gone.”
“When it came across my desk I had to, it was a mission,” said Santana. “I was thinking about my godfather because he was in World War I. For me it was personal. If he had lost his ID, he would want someone to return it back to the family.”