Westport woman goes on hunt to return $500 to rightful owner

News 12 Connecticut Staff, July 26th, 2021

A woman from Westport decided to return a card found on the ground with $500 inside to its rightful owner.

Gabrielle Perry, 23, was headed to dinner with friends in South Norwalk when she found the card in the parking lot of the Maritime Aquarium on July 10.

“I see there's an envelope on the ground…it said Reverend Dennis on the outside,” says Perry. “The outside said ‘Thank you for marrying us’ and then the inside was a really sweet, heartfelt note to the reverend and it seemed like they knew each other for a really long time.”

Perry tells News 12 the card had no last names. Only “From Christina and Dave.”

“That's when I contacted my friend's mom who's good at searching for people online,” said Perry.

The friend’s mother Google searched "Christina and David wedding Connecticut,” and one of the first hits brought her to the registries for a Christina Ulreich and David Kean. From there, she found Ulreich through LinkedIn and her job.

“I got married on July 11 and it was a beautiful day,” says Chrisitna Ulreich-Kean. “The thing that dampened the morning was when I found out that the gift we had given our reverend who was performing the ceremony had been lost the night before at our rehearsal dinner.”

The dinner was at The Spread in South Norwalk.

Ulreich-Kean figured the gift was gone and focused on enjoying her big day with friends and family.

That night, after the wedding Ulreich-Kean got an email which said: “I hope this is the Christina of Christina and David that are getting married on July 11. We're desperately trying to find the owners of the card. Please let us know if that was you.”

A shocked Ulreich-Kean and her new husband met up with Perry the next day and returned the card to the reverend.

“It was incredible that she even saw the cash and wanted to return it…That they went to so much trouble to find us was just really incredible,” says Ulreich-Kean.