Baby book in stolen bag. Good Samaritans found owner.

A bag stolen from an Inver Grove Heights woman’s car contained no money or credit cards, but a book inside was irreplaceable.

It was Susanna Parent’s 10-month-old son’s baby book, which contained ultrasound pictures, his newborn’s footprints and more. “I was devastated,” she said on Monday.

Some people told Parent not to give up hope, maybe it would work out. “It was something I wanted to believe in, but I didn’t really think it would become a reality,” she said.

But it was.

Staff at the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul, near where the theft occurred, found Parent’s bag, which had been discarded at their loading dock, with the baby book still inside. Using information from the bag, they were able to track down Parent.

The theft occurred last Tuesday morning as the mother was taking her 4-year-old son to a swim lesson at the corner of University Avenue and Lexington Parkway in St. Paul. She locked a passenger door, thinking she locked all the doors, but it turned out the other doors were unlocked.

The mother later noticed that her laptop bag had been stolen from her car. She did not have her laptop with her that day (there was nothing of monetary value in the bag), but she and her daughter had been working that morning to fill out her youngest son’s baby book and the laptop was in the bag. She reported the incident to the police.

“I just hoped and prayed that somehow, some way, it would come back,” she said. “I knew it would have been a miracle if it had actually shown up.”

Letters that Parent had received were in her bag. Two Wilder Foundation front desk workers, Connie and Pazao, found Parent’s information on the envelopes. They attempted to send messages to Parent and her husband on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Wilder’s property manager, Tammi, looked up Parent’s name online and found that she was a freelance writer, which is how she found an email address.

Parent received an email telling her they had found her bag, and she wrote back. She went to the Wilder Foundation, brought baked goods as a “thank you” and met the people who helped her. Tammi asked that the helpers be referred to by their first names only.

“My experience has shown me that there are people out there who mean well and will do anything to make someone happy and help brighten their day,” Parent said.

Prevent theft from vehicles

As of Monday, 675 cases of vehicle thefts had been reported in St. Paul, compared with 703 during the same period last year, according to St. Paul police data.

The police recommend:

• Lock your vehicles.
• Do not leave any objects in the vehicle or make sure that they are not visible from the outside.
• Park in well-lit areas.