TEMPE, Ariz. — While driving around Tempe delivering food in the early morning, Michelle Ann Vincent spotted something out of the ordinary in the middle of Dorsey Lane.
“It just struck me as it didn’t belong there,” Vincent said.
It stuck with Vincent so much, she turned her car around and picked up the item.
“I was kind of drawn back to it,” Vincent said.
Picking up the item, she realized it was a wedding album.
“The box was open and laying with their photo face up,” Vincent said.
The date "May 1, 2021" was inscribed on the front with a photo of the bride holding her bouquet and the groom in a navy suit.
The album was still wrapped in plastic.
“I saw the date and I thought well, gosh, they waited this long to get it,” Vincent said. “And I don't know how much those things run, but I know they're not cheap.”
Vincent posted photos of the album on social media, and social media did the good thing it can do: connect people.
“I get a Facebook message from a stranger that says, ‘Hey, someone found your photo album in the road’,” Stephanie Adames Morales said. “So I'm like, ‘What?’”
Adames Morales said she ordered the $250 album while on maternity leave with the six-week-old daughter she had with her husband, Patrick Morales.
What happened between delivery and the street, they don’t know for sure.
“Our biggest guess is maybe there was a porch pirate who came, stole it thinking it was something of value that they could sell and realized, ‘Oh, it's someone's photo album’ and just threw it out on the ground,” Adames Morales said.
But those memories are now back with the couple in its physical book format.
“I’m so glad that so many people helped us and came together and because sometimes you don’t expect that,” Patrick Morales said.
The album, however, holds something special beyond their wedding day.
“My dad passed away two weeks after we got married. So these are actually the last photos of my dad. So to have to get the book back and have all those memories, you know, is really special to us,” Adames Morales said.
The white-bound album reunited thanks to one stranger who felt compelled to turn around on a Tempe street.
“It’s really special,” Vincent said. “I just feel like maybe he (Adames Morales' father) was reaching out and said, ‘Here, pick this up and get it back to my family’.”
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on our 12 News YouTube playlist here.