Michigan man finds 70-year-old love letter in second-hand toolbox

Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A Michigan man is trying to solve the mystery of a 70-year-old love letter he found in a toolbox he purchased from a farm auction.

Rick Trojanowski of Grand Rapids said he bought the toolbox at a farm auction in 2017, but it wasn't until years later that he found an old letter stashed away in a drawer.

The letter was authored 70 years ago by Army Cpl. Irvin G. Fleming and was sent from San Francisco to Mary Lee Cribbs in Grand Rapids.

The letter featured Fleming apologizing to Cribbs for a disagreement they had, and professing his undying love and intention to marry her when he returns from the Army.

"It's almost like a true love story. People just don't write things like that nowadays; it's almost like poetry," Trojanowski told WXMI-TV.

Trojanowski is now trying to find surviving relatives of the couple so he can give them the letter.

"I really don't have any use for it and if we can find the people it belongs to, the kids, I think it'd be really neat for them," he said.

A Minneapolis couple recently detailed their own similar incident after finding a pair of love notes inside the wall of their bathroom during a remodeling project.

Matt and Carrie Tessmer said both letters were signed simply "John B." and appeared to be written from a teenager to two separate objects of his affection.