Local diver finds wallet on ocean bottom; returns it

WEST PALM BEACH, FL - John Dickinson has logged plenty of hours in the ocean enjoying every dive to its fullest so when he stumbled upon a wallet at 130 feet below the surface, he had quite a situation on his hands.

"I see a grouper, I go down, I shot this grouper and I look down and see a wallet flashing at me and I go 'what in the world,' " says Dickinson.

Never did he think a wallet loaded with credit cards, $85 and personal effects  would be sitting on the ocean floor for a week. Finding it was easy. Finding the owner was a different story.

"We noticed right away there were business cards but several little small pieces of paper with numbers," says Dickinson.

Giving up was not an option, taking it as another man's loss was just plain wrong and so the investigation began. A few divers sifted through a few waterlogged smeared numbers. It was enough to track down Gerald Salery who couldn't believe his eyes.

"I get a call from my eye doctor letting me know that a guy found my wallet and I said 'no that's impossible,' " says Salery.

For a guy who didn't want any drama on the water, who just wanted to catch some fish, the wallet that slipped out of Salery's pocket turned into a quite a tale that caught the attention of hundreds of divers.

"I told Gerald that the only thing I wasn't going to return to him was a winning lottery ticket," says a smiling Dickinson. 

By the stroke of luck what seemed impossible brought two men together. It turned this tale into something that will be recounted over and over again as the one that didn't get away.

"It's good to know we still have people like this here in West Palm Beach, the honest people," says Salery.