FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A priceless war medal was returned to a Flagler County family after a volunteer found the memorabilia at an Arizona thrift shop.
Lisa Walker said it took more than three decades for her father’s war medals to be returned to her family.
“They’re back where they belong,” Walker said. “That’s the only thing that we have.”
Walker said her father, Pfc. Erik Karl Blauberg, served in the U.S. Army and fought in the Korean War. She said he was in and out of her family’s lives until he died in 1988.
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She said she only had photos of him, until his Purple Heart and other Korean War medals were found more than 2,000 miles away at an Arizona thrift store.
Teresa Ferrin volunteers at the store. She said they found the medals on a piece of cardboard.
“I price mostly the vintage and things like that and that’s how I came in contact with this,” Ferrin said.
Ferrin said she knew the medals meant something to someone.
“My father was in Korea and I thought, ‘Oh if we had lost this in our family, I would really want to have it back,’” Ferrin said.
She got results and started tracking down the soldier’s family. Her only clue was Blauberg’s name on the back of the Purple Heart.
Ferrin said she searched online and social media, figuring out where he was buried and eventually finding Walker in Flagler County.
“She was just very happy to know that there was something coming back to the family of his,” Ferrin said.
Walker said she didn’t know her father earned a Purple Heart. She also said she didn’t know what he did to earn the medal.
She said her father’s doctor kept his medals after he died. She doesn’t know how they ended up at the thrift store.
“I’m just happy after 30 something years that we got them back. This is where he should have been to begin with,” Walker said. “With his family, not in a storage box somewhere, so I think it was God’s way to get him back to us.”
Walker said she’s thankful Ferrin helped bring the medals back where they belong.
“I just mailed a package, but it’s given a family a lot of happiness and I’m really happy about that,” Ferrin said.
Walker called this a sign from her father.
“I think it was meant to be. For it to get into her hands, knowing that she wasn’t going to give up to get it back in our hands,” Walker said.