Louisville, Kentucky; February 8, 2014 – The story about the collection of priceless WWII medals found in a storage unit let out by WAVE 3 Saturday has a happy ending after all.
Stephanie Kalbaugh and her husband David, both employees at the Aladdin Self Storage in East Louisville, a priceless collection of WWII medals August last year. They placed the WWII medals in their office hoping that their owners would be able to spot them and claim them.
However, several months had already passed by but the WWII medals hanging on their office wall remained unclaimed. Exerting more effort in their owner-finding quest, they reached out to WAVE 3. The story about the Kalbaughs’ WWII medals find was aired on Saturday. Less than 24 hours later, someone contacted the couple.
Tony Grunder, also a Louisville resident, happened to be watching WAVE 3 the night the story about the found WWII medals was aired.
“I was sleeping in my La-Z-Boy and I woke up and saw this program WAVE TV. I made the call,” he commented.
It turned out that the collection of WWII medals the Kalbaughs found belonged to Tony’s father, WWII veteran Anthony Grunder.
Anthony Grunder had been a WWII hero; a Purple Heart was among the several medals he received in honor of the heroic deeds he did during WWII. Tony last saw his father’s WWII medals 23 years ago and he had given up hope of seeing them again thinking that they were lost forever.
Because of the Kablaughs’ efforts and that story aired in WAVE TV, Tony got the WWII medals back Sunday.
Ironically, Tony just live ten minutes away from the storage unit yet he never knew a piece of his father’s life – his priceless WWII medals – were there.
“I work at the truck plant and I live just live 10 minutes down the road,” said Grunder then added, “I really had no idea they were there.”
Tony, very grateful to the Kalbaughs, recounted that his stepmother might have been the one who placed the WWII medals in storage but did not tell anyone. When his stepmother passed away several years ago, the secret got carried to her grave.
Now that the WWII medals have found their way to Tony’s home, he said he will make sure they never get lost again.
“My father was a good man. He went to be a soldier and remained a soldier until he passed,” Grunder said about his father.
Grunder lost his father at 67 years old to cancer in 1991. Tony, who is also a veteran, stated that he will put his father’s WWII medals on display above his desk at home.
In token of gratitude to the Kalbaughs, he gave them a picture of his father which they had placed on their office wall at the very spot where the WWII medals used to hang.