It was a unique day of fishing for Brodie and his uncle. The boy had just received a new fishing rod and wanted to try it out with his uncle. The afternoon was very special, but not for the reason they thought it would be. Because when the boy had an old bag on the line and not a fish, they decided to call the police.
The adventure started with lots of screaming and waving. When Brodie saw his fishing rod start to bend, it could mean only one thing: he had caught ahold of something big. His uncle realized he couldn’t pull it up on his own and ran over to help. But no fish came out of the water…
Strange moment
The fishing adventure quickly turned into a strange moment, especially for a kid. He was fishing with his uncle and cousin out on the lake to catch fish with his new fishing rod. Brodie and his uncle had chosen Lake Hartwell in South Carolina for their fishing adventure. His uncle had hoped to give him the time of his life.
Ben Myers, Brodie’s uncle, was thrilled by the idea of helping his nephew with his new fishing rod. He explained how to attach the bait and use the rod for an optimal result. It was Brodie’s first fishing trip on open water, so Ben wasn’t expecting him to catch anything at all.
What is that?
“My rod was splashing back and forth,” Brodie said. “Whatever was on my line was extremely heavy and I thought I had caught a huge fish.” He was more than proud that his first outing with his new rod was such a success. But he had one fear: “I was afraid my rod was going to break.”
Once the leathery object was out of the water, they were sure it wasn’t a fish. It appeared to be an old bag. Not just any bag. The weight of the catch made it pretty clear that there was something inside.
Shocked
Brodie didn’t think about it for a single second and undid the zipper. Once he saw what was inside, he was shocked and called over his uncle Ben. Ben immediately saw that it was an old bag when he lifted it up. How old it really was, he couldn’t be sure of. But something slipped out of the bag and revealed its truth.
The uncle quickly became anxious about the objects inside the soaking wet leather catch. The first thing his nephew removed was a stack of old, bleached photos. The men didn’t recognize anyone in the pictures, so they kept going through the bag. Based on the color and quality of the photos, they had been taken tens of years ago. It seemed like a mission impossible to find the owner of the bag.
The bag had another pocket that could easily be missed. Inside were even more old pictures. Ben and Brodie took the pictures apart so they could dry them off. One photo stuck out to the men.
Old acquaintance
His uncle recognized the face of a woman in one of the pictures. Brodie recognized her too. Ben knew her from years ago, a family friend. He hadn’t seen her for the past ten years. Why was her bag in the water? Would this help a case?
Ben and Brodie called the authorities. The uncle searched Facebook to find her name and her family and friends.
The owner of the bag was April Bolt, who would have been 49 years old at the time. And she’s still alive! The woman couldn’t believe that the bag she had lost in 1992 had been found. She had always believed that someone had taken it with bad intentions. “I cried so hard. It took so much effort to block my ID’s and credit cards,” she remembers.
Brodie looked very disappointed at the end of the day because he hadn’t caught any fish. Pulling up an old, leather bag during his first fishing trip was the last thing he expected. His uncle told him that he had caught a true treasure, but the 11-year-old didn’t agree. The person who probably got the most joy out of that day, was April. She was finally reunited with her belongings that she had lost almost a quarter of a century ago.
April can’t contain her excitement. She’s overjoyed at the fact that she finally had some of her most precious belongings back. But she believed that there was a deeper meaning. “There must be a reason why this happened now’” she said. “I’m sure that God will tell me why when the right moment is here.”
