Who knew that “treasures untold” could be found at the bottom of our very own Lehigh River? A pair of local divers recently reunited a Lehigh Valley man with some important possessions.
The local scuba-loving brothers call themselves “Stillfin” and “Stiffchin.”
They asked to keep the story to their public names for some privacy.
“This is actually a very serious hobby of ours that we do,” Stillfin said.
The brothers mostly search the bottom of the Lehigh River.
“Return items to people, figure out different parts of history, try to debunk certain myths that have been going around the Lehigh Valley,” Stillfin said.
One example was looking for a train that was rumored to have fallen into the waters in the Catasauqua area.
“We’re all the way up the river to, like, the Northampton area,” Stiffchin said. “Still no train.”
The divers shine a light on local history, as well as on lost items, which they say can take several months to return to owners.
“Especially when we found a drone, and we found a cell phone, we had to, like, narrow it down,” Stillfin said.
The brothers say they always use Minute Rice to try their best to dry out the devices. And then, as long as folks have updated their emergency contacts on their phone, the divers are able to contact someone without needing to unlock the device, and hence they can return it.
But when the scuba-loving brothers recently found the contents of a wallet between the Lehigh River’s rocks, they say they were able to return it in record time.
In a video posted to the STILLFIN Facebook page, Stillfin can be heard saying:
“I can’t find a phone number to return this, but the thing is, according to this ID, he ain’t far away. I think we should just take it right to his house.”
Stiffchin, who was recording, turned the camera on himself and said, “I like this idea, let’s do it.”
And as for the wallet’s owner?
“That’s my nephew,” a man answering the door can be heard saying.
69 News spoke with the owner of the wallet, a Bethlehem resident who asked to remain anonymous in this story. But he says he was assaulted a few weeks ago at Musikfest, and learned after the fact that his wallet — and hat — were missing.
“There’s a guy with a valid driver’s license,” Stiffchin told 69 News. “He’s got cards that are still valid. This, and this is like, I don’t know, two or three weeks of river slime.”
And while the approximately $80 cash in his wallet was gone, the owner couldn’t believe the brothers randomly came across his crucial items — all by scuba diving in the Lehigh River.