37-Year-Old Time Capsule Discovered In California House Returned to Man Who Hid It
It was found inside the wall of a California home.
— -- A 37-year-old time capsule discovered in a Fontana, California home last December has been returned to the man who hid it as a 12-year-old boy.
Texas resident Robert Wright, 49, told ABC News today he flew with his father to their former home this past weekend to pick up the 1978 time capsule and its contents -- a letter Wright wrote to himself, a McDonald's scratch card game, newspaper clippings and coins.
"It was surreal," Wright said. "I never thought I'd see it again."
Wright said making the capsule was a "spur-of-the-moment" kind of thing.
"My dad was redoing the interior wall inside the house," he said, "so I decided I wanted to throw something in before he sealed it."
Wright wrote a note saying: "Hello to whoever finds this. My name is Robert Wright. Today my dad is putting up paneling. Today is November 18th, 1978, 15 till 12:00 noon. I'm 12 years old and a student at Fontana JR. High, 7th grade. I am 5'3, blond hair, hazel eyes. Here is proof of the date. Robert Wright."
He then gathered a few trinkets from his room, put everything in a bag and hid it behind the wall, he said.
The capsule remained hidden until six years ago when it was discovered by the home's current owner, Greg Sandoval, while he was doing a renovation.
"As time went by, I didn’t want to throw it away," Sandoval told ABC News last December. "After six years, I decided to do something about it and called my local ABC station here in Los Angeles.”
The story was also aired by a local ABC affiliate in Houston, near where Wright lives, and he got in touch with Sandoval shortly after, he said. Since he was going to be in the West Coast for a conference in a few months, he decided to pick it up personally, he added.
Wright's two boys, ages eight and nine, are going to make their own time capsules they'll hide away during their house remodeling this upcoming summer, he said.
"Who knows? Maybe 50 years from now, someone will find their things, and they'll have a cool story to tell," Wright said.