The breathtaking Lifeline op shop discovery that left shopper speechless: ‘This can’t be real!’
An Australian man has discovered framed pictures of himself and his wife in a thrift shop they had lost while moving house more than 30 years ago.
Rob Klaric was browsing Lifeline’s Mosman store on Sydney’s north shore when he spotted the two pictures on the floor and thought he was ‘hallucinating’.
The photos were taken in 1988 when he and Leonie, his wife of 35 years, were backpacking across Europe. They hung on the wall for a few years before a removal company in 1993 misplaced a box they were packed in.
‘I’m still buzzing with this. I mean, what’s the chances?’ Mr Klaric told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
‘I’ve walked into a store and I see these pictures and I thought I was hallucinating.
‘We backpacked across Europe, to my mother’s place in the north of Italy.
‘The photo’s iconic because it’s in my mother’s backyard and Mum’s just passed away a few years ago.’
Mr Klaric married Leonie the year after they returned from Europe and they lived in a small place while they were getting on their feet before upsizing a few years later.
Rob Klaric with Lifeline Mosman staff after finding two framed photos of him and his wife on a European holiday from 30 years ago in the store
Mr Klaric said it was a huge coincidence he had decided to visit that store (pictured)
The two pictures were snapped in Italy when he and his wife were backpacking a year before they got married but were misplaced while they were moving house
He had always wondered what happened to the photos and when he saw them in the op-shop his first thought was ‘this can’t be real’ but they were unmistakable.
Staff were also stunned but Mr Klaric explained he still had to pay for the items.
‘The ironic thing is that my picture, apologies Leonie, mine was more expensive. It was $12 and hers was $8,’ he said.
Mr Klaric said he wondered if his late mother had something to do with the remarkable find.
‘My beautiful old Italian mum, it’s got her fingerprints all over it,’ he said.
‘Those pictures were right in the middle [of the shop] on the floor, you would have never seen it unless you walked through the store.
‘If it was on the left or the right you wouldn’t have seen it.
‘I think she’s looking down from heaven.’
