B.C. man on mission to reunite lost 'treasure' with war veteran
A scrapbook filled with photos of a soldier’s life during the war somehow ended up in a B.C. thrift shop, and the man who found it is trying to reunite the album with its rightful owner.
Carlos Romero discovered what he calls "a treasure" at a Value Village store in Coquitlam, about five years ago.
It’s a white leather bound book with “Snaps Scraps” printed in gold on the front and the initials LS, along with the name Len Hart at the bottom right corner.
There are hundreds of black and white photos inside.
“I can tell he went to World War II,” said Romero. “There are some pictures of him with friends in Notre Dame.”
Other images are from battlefields, medal ceremonies, and weddings.
Further into the album, the man is shown enjoying life in British Columbia, fishing, and raising a family.
“You know, so much contrast in the pictures. You flip the page and then’s he’s in Vancouver with a big smile,” Romero pointed out while looking through the photographs.
For five years, Romero has been trying to find the Hart family. At first, he tried calling numbers in the White Pages, and then he took to social media.
There is an inscription on the inside cover that reads, “To Len from Doris, Bob & family.” It’s dated Christmas 1957.
So far, nobody has come forward to claim it, but Carlos believes it likely found its way to the thrift store by mistake.
Romero is asking anyone who might know the rightful owner, to contact him on Instagram.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Police: Buffalo gunman aimed to keep killing if he got away
The white gunman accused of massacring 10 Black people in a racist rampage at a Buffalo supermarket planned to keep killing if he had escaped the scene, the police commissioner said Monday, as the possibility of federal hate crime or domestic terror charges loomed.

Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre denounces 'white replacement theory'
Pierre Poilievre is denouncing the 'white replacement theory' believed to be a motive for a mass shooting in Buffalo, N.Y., as 'ugly and disgusting hate-mongering.'
Ontario driver who killed woman and three daughters sentenced to 17 years in prison
A driver who struck and killed a woman and her three young daughters nearly two years ago 'gambled with other people's lives' when he took the wheel, an Ontario judge said Monday in sentencing him to 17 years behind bars.
What we know so far about the victims of the Buffalo mass shooting
A former police officer, the 86-year-old mother of Buffalo's former fire commissioner, and a grandmother who fed the needy for decades were among those killed in a racist attack by a gunman on Saturday in a Buffalo grocery store. Three people were also wounded.
Documents show a pattern of human rights abuses against gender diverse prisoners
Facing daily instances of violence and abuse, gender diverse people in the Canadian prison system say they are forced to take measures into their own hands to secure their safety.
White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks
A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.
Ontario party leaders set to face off in election debate
The Ontario election leaders debate is happening on Monday night. Here's how to watch it live.
Amber Heard says she feared she would not survive Johnny Depp marriage
'Aquaman' actor Amber Heard told jurors in a defamation case on Monday that she filed for divorce from Johnny Depp in 2016 because she worried she would not survive physical abuse by him.
Russia faces diplomatic and battlefield setbacks on Ukraine
Moscow suffered another diplomatic setback Monday in its war with Ukraine, with Sweden joining Finland in deciding to seek NATO membership, while Ukraine's president congratulated his soldiers who reportedly pushed back Russian forces near the border.