Mercy For A Thief

A bar owner’s determination to find a lost wallet helps a young man change his life

- Jen Mccaffery

A FRANTIC CALL came into Jimmy Gilleece’s bar this past March. A newly married woman who had spent the afternoon at the dive bar in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, USA, couldn’t find her wallet. She didn’t care about her ID, credit cards or $150 in cash—but her wedding ring was tucked inside.

Gilleece, 42, didn’t like the idea that a theft could have occurred at his place, Jimmy’s at Red Dogs. So he set out to find the wallet. He spent hours scouring footage from 16 different surveillance cameras, watching the woman’s every step in the bar until she went to sit on a bench outside and left when her ride arrived. Within minutes, a young man in a hoodie approached the bench, shoved something in his pocket and walked off. Gilleece posted a clip on the bar’s Facebook page. “I didn’t want to crucify him,” he said. “I just asked if anybody knew who the guy was.”