Things You Find at Goodwill: Ratty Clothes, Used Shoes, $4.99 Purple Heart From WWII

This was definitely not one of the items mentioned in that way-too-catchy thrift shop/Goodwill song a few years ago.

But a woman in Mesa, Arizona was stunned to find an authentic Purple Heart war medallion at her local Goodwill this weekend, turning it over to see that it had in fact been awarded to an injured soldier: Eual H. Whiteman.

Even more bizarre was the item’s price tag: just $4.99.

“It was just classified as purple jewelry,” said Laura Hardy. “They just rang it up… no comment from the people at the register or anywhere.”

After the woman and her husband posted photos of the item on their Facebook pages, they were contacted by a group known as Veteran Buddy Finder, an effort to reconnect vets years after their service. The Purple Heart was eventually traced back to the only living family member of Whiteman’s, his former sister-in-law.

Research revealed that Whiteman was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, and earned a Combat Badge and a Presidential Unit Badge. He also earned three battle stars, all in addition to his newly-discovered Purple Heart.

Goodwill said of the incident that it was “unfortunate” the Purple Heart wound up at one of its stores, though they have reportedly offered to reimburse Hardy for the price.

In a statement to ABC News, Courtney Nelson — the vice president of marketing and communications for Goodwill of Central Arizona, said:

“We have a process in place for all of our donation attendants that when they identify an item of significance, like a medal, we ask them to pull it aside and we try to contact either the Veterans Affairs Department or local authorities. They are processing thousands of items every day so this was unfortunately an example of an item that slipped through and wasn’t identified as a Purple Heart.”

[h/t Yahoo! News]
[image via ABC News]