(FORTUNE Magazine) – IN THE PAST 28 YEARS I'VE BEEN AN ACCOUNTing clerk, baggage man, and an usher, but working in the lost and found is the roughest job I've ever had. When I get in at 7:30 in the morning, there might be 50 messages waiting. About 30 people walk in during the day. People lose wallets, of course, but also birth certificates, financing papers, presentations, a shoe. I get quite a bit of food--meats, sausages, hams--and if you don't catch them in time, they get kind of funky. The job requires a lot of detective work: I just dig and dig and dig until I find a clue, like a dentist-appointment card or phone numbers or a drug prescription. One time when I returned a datebook, the guy said, "You called my Aunt Mabel. I haven't spoken to her in 25 years!" Once I found a lady's immigration papers. She was supposed to go home to Jamaica the next day for the first time in 30 years. I called her up, and when I told her, I heard a scream and a bump. Her sister got on the phone and said she'd fainted. People are so grateful. There are still good, honest folks in the world, and it is nice to remind people of that. -- Interview by Corey Hajim