The breathtaking Lifeline op shop discovery that left shopper speechless: ‘This can’t be real!’
An Australian man has discovered framed photos of himself and his wife in a thrift store that they lost during a move more than 30 years ago.
Rob Klaric was browsing in Lifeline’s Mosman store on Sydney’s North Shore when he saw the two photos on the floor and thought he was ‘hallucinating’.
The photos were taken in 1988 when he and Leonie, his wife of 35 years, were backpacking through Europe. They hung on the wall for a few years before a moving company lost a box they were packed in in 1993.
‘I’m still disappointed about it. I mean, what are the chances?’ Mr Klaric told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
‘I walked into a shop and I see these pictures and I thought I was hallucinating.
‘We backpacked through Europe, to my mother’s house in the north of Italy.
“The photo is iconic because it’s in my mother’s backyard and my mother just passed away a few years ago.”
Mr Klaric married Leonie the year after they returned from Europe and they lived in a small town while they were on their feet, before upsizing a few years later.
Rob Klaric of the Lifeline Mosman staff after finding two framed photos of him and his wife on a European vacation 30 years ago in the store
Mr Klaric said it was a great coincidence that he decided to visit that store (photo)
The two photos were taken in Italy when he and his wife were backpacking a year before they got married, but were lost during their move.
He had always wondered what happened to the photos, and when he saw them in the store, his first thought was, This can’t be real, but they were unmistakable.
The staff was also baffled, but Mr. Klaric explained that he still had to pay for the items.
‘The ironic thing is that my photo, sorry Leonie, mine was more expensive. It was $12 and hers was $8,” he said.
Mr Klaric said he wondered whether his late mother had anything to do with the remarkable find.
“My beautiful old Italian mother, she has fingerprints all over her,” he said.
‘Those photos were right in the middle [of the shop] on the floor, you would never have seen it unless you walked through the store.
‘If it had been left or right, you wouldn’t have seen it.
“I think she’s looking down from heaven.”