Purse Stolen 20 Years Ago Recovered In Riverside County, Items Inside Intact

MENIFEE (CBSLA.com) —  A woman, whose purse was stolen 20 years ago, recently recovered her handbag. It was dirty and weathered, but still in one piece.

Many of the items inside were also intact, including her driver's license, a Social Security card, mascara and other items, Lynne Button said.

She said a thief stole her $600 Gucci satchel from her van parked in her driveway on Halloween night in 1995.

Almost two decades later, the Gucci bag was reunited with its rightful owner. "Something I thought I would never ever see," Button said.

Two weeks ago, Michael Cassidy was working in a citrus grove in Valle Vista when he noticed the purse sitting along a row of trees. The handbag was found near where Button and her family used to live.

"It was so intact, I knew right there it was something I needed to get right back to the owner," Cassidy said. "I looked in it and found a social security card. So I stopped right there and secured the purse."

Cassidy took the Gucci bag to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, where a deputy was able to track down Button and delivered her now vintage Gucci.

"I'm really lucky someone like you found it. Thank you," Button said to Cassidy, who visited her at her Menifee home Monday night.

Button was surprised to see it and what was still inside—her social security card in great condition and several blasts from the past.

"My driver's license was in there, which was really kind of retro. The Farrah Fawcett look, I think, and my glasses were huge!"

Everything else inside was also intact including a lotto ticket, a bottle of pills, lipstick, mascara, credit cards from stores that no longer exist, expired library cards and a matchbook from the business Button and her husband used to own.

"It brought back a lot of good memories. We were a new young family in Hemet with a really nice restaurant that we were running," Button said.

She realized that no matter how much the purse cost, what was inside remains priceless.

"If that would've been my purse and I lost it or had it stolen, I'd appreciate if somebody let me know," Cassidy said.

"I think it's amazing, and it reminds you that there are still some really good people," Button said.

Where the Gucci purse had been in the past two decades remains a mystery.