On a weekday in the afternoon I received a phone call from an administrator who advised me that there was a briefcase left in the washroom on their floor. She said that it was left in the men's washroom for several hours and didn't belong to anyone who worked there. I attended and was handed a vintage Samsonite briefcase; it was dated but in good shape. For security reasons I looked inside before putting it in lost and found but wasn't prepared for what I found.

Inside the brief case were documents belonging to a man named Sven. Based on the documents I was able to ascertain that Sven was born in Netherlands prior to when the Titanic sailed and died in America just in time to witness a free Germany. There were several sequential Netherlands passports from the 60's and 70's which I found extremely interesting because they had stamps from EVERYWHERE! Among the papers I found shipping manifests for ocean freight and a ship captain's license (dated 60's) and that's when I realized that Sven was a captain of a cargo vessel. There were papers which indicated that he had navigated the Panama Canal and circumvented the globe many times. There were several pamphlets of tourist attractions all over the world and postcards from every country I could think of. I was in love.

This briefcase was a physical manifestation of every part of me that had ever wanted to explore. It was also an incredible piece of family history for anyone who has ever wanted a glimpse of what their relatives had done over the course of their life. I HAD to get it back to Sven's family.

There was another office on the floor and the washrooms were shared by both offices. I sent an email to the other office manager to see if someone had misplaced their briefcase but heard back quickly that no one was missing or had used a briefcase since the 90's.

I searched for Sven online and actually found a website which outlined his birth, death and relatives but of course no contact information for them. I remained hopeful that someone would soon come and claim this piece of history. But then nothing ... for a long time.

No one called, no one claimed it and it sat on a shelf for nine months. During that time, I went back and looked inside a half dozen times just to run my fingers over this strange artifact which had come from nowhere and now belonged to no one. It had an energy about it that was so peculiar, such a small vessel which contained an entire life.

Finally, it had worn out its welcome and my manager Mike told me that I had to get rid of it. He offered to let me take it home but it didn't feel right, and truthfully neither did throwing it out but what was I going to do with it at home? I emptied the contents of the briefcase onto my desk to sort if for the shredder and as I did a small piece of paper which I hadn't seen before fell out of a book and landed on top of the pile. It was full of coffee stains and had scribble on it which I could recognize as Svens hand writing. It contained an address but only a number and a street name but I recognized it as being local, on the back of the paper was a phone number with no area code. I googled the phone number with a local area code and got someone with the same last name.

I called the number and a young boy answered the phone, I asked him if he was related to a Sven and he told me that Sven was his grandfather, he was going to have his father Derek phone me to get the details. When Derek called me back 5 minutes later, he was in disbelief that I had his father's briefcase. He didn't understand why it was found in the washroom and was adamant that he had put it in a storage locker which is where it was as far as he knew. He thanked me for holding onto it for so long and doing the leg work to contact him. He said that he was really busy with work but that he would be by within a week to pick it up.

And then nothing ... for an even longer time.

I contacted Derek a month later and he responded that he had gotten busy and hadn't had a chance to come get it. It sat on the shelf for another 10 months, he never came.

I had to re-qualify for my first responder certification in March of the following year. I knew that Derek lived within a block of the building and I decided to return it myself. I left it on the porch with his address taped to the outside of the briefcase. I didn't knock, I just left it. I'm not sure why it meant so much to me, I think the thought of Svens grand kids missing out on access to that tangible family history was too much for me. I have access to my family history and I feel very connected to that narrative as a result.

I never heard back from Derek but it felt good to send it home.

What did I learn? - A.) There is usually enough information in front of you to link an object to a person if you look hard enough B.) Work can be more important than family to some people C.) Make sure you check on your storage units, sometimes they get broken into.