SAN DIEGO — It all started on a fishing trip when Steven Grafton and a few of his friends were out about a mile off the coast of Point Loma when he lost track of his cell phone after placing it in his shirt pocket.
“I had two rods in the water, lots of fish, then I get a phone call,” said Steven Grafton. “At some point, something must’ve happened, and my phone ended up in the water.”
Steven’s phone case actually doubled as a wallet, so when his phone went overboard, he lost everything in his wallet too.
“I lost my ID card, my debit card, my credit card, my vaccination card, my fishing license, and all the cash I had on hand,” said Grafton.
And that was no small loss at $150. With his wallet and cell phone sitting on the ocean floor, he thought they were gone forever, and normally that would be the case. But this time, lady luck was on his side.
“I was like, 'oh wow!'” said Luke Halmay.
When commercial diver Luke Halmay was scouting for sea urchins about 60-feet under the kelp patties, he came across Steven’s missing items.
“It was like bright red so I swam over to it, and then I realized what it was,” said Halmay.
According to Luke, finding these items on the seafloor is quite the rare occurrence.
“I’m out there a lot, but still, that never happens,” said Halmay.
When Luke returned home, he took out all the cards and cash and dried everything out, all the while thinking about how he could get this stuff back to its owner.
“I was like, 'oh maybe he still lives at this address,'” said Halmay.
So he wrote a letter and mailed it. And when Steven checked his mailbox, he found a mysterious, handwritten letter that read, “Hello, I’m a commercial diver and I found your wallet and phone at the bottom of the ocean. Please give me a call if you can.”
So Steven gave Luke a call.
“He was actually dumbfounded,” said Luke. “I was like 'yea, I found it.' He was like 'that’s a one-in-a-million chance,' and yea, it’s the first time it’s ever happened to me.”
Steven was so grateful, he urged him to keep all the cash that was in the wallet, but Luke wasn’t interested in any finder’s fee.
“I was like 'you lost your phone and everything. It would benefit you way more,'” said Luke.
Even though the cell phone was beyond repair, having all his cards and cash, and even his fishing license back, was more than Steven could’ve hoped for.
“I show people the phone, the case, the letter, and they don’t believe it,” said Grafton. “I don’t know if I believe it half the time, but it happened.”
Coincidentally, the same day Steven lost his phone and wallet was the same day his general contractor’s license was approved.
With all his bank cards, cash, and IDs back in his possession, he was able to get the paperwork in order to start his new heating and air conditioning business, Grafton AC.
If you have a story you’d like to send to us, just email us at yourstories@kfmb.com
WATCH RELATED: Former military nurse writes poetry book to inspire healthcare workers