The day started out fun enough.

It was a weekday in May 1981 and Jeff Boes, a senior at Vintage High School, had cut class and run off with a bunch of friends to Lake Berryessa.

Boes doesn’t remember the exact date, but he definitely remembers the ride home. 

“The guy I was with was driving like an idiot,” Boes, now 46, said. Riding in a 1976 Monte Carlo, “He was passing people on blind curves going 50 to 60 mph.” Boes said he told his friend to let him out, but he wouldn’t stop the car. “I knew we were going to wreck. I just closed my eyes and waited.”

Somewhere after passing Turtle Rock on Capell Valley Road, Boes said, “We went off a cliff. We just flew in the air like a jump.”

As the car flipped over, Boes remembers seeing a dry creek bed below. “I saw the riverbed coming and I remember thinking, ‘Just tuck and roll.’ I went through the front windshield before the roof of the car caved in.”

The car was totaled. His friend had numerous broken bones. The two were stuck in a gully.

Boes recalls being covered in blood, and though he didn’t know it yet, he had a broken neck. “Losing my wallet was the last thing I was thinking of,” he said.

Transported to the Queen of the Valley Hospital, Boes was told he wouldn’t walk again. Eventually he recovered, although he wore a halo and other neck braces for months, he said.

As for his wallet, Boes figured it was long gone.

That was 28 years ago.

This summer, Sherry Flippin of Suisun City and her family, including daughter Sarah and father Bill Emhoff, decided to spend a day boating at Lake Berryessa.

“I was out with my family on our boat for quite a few hours,” said Flippin. After docking at the Capell Cove boat launch that evening, Flippin and her daughter decided to take a look along the water’s edge.

“We always walk the shoreline when the water goes down,” said Flippin.

That’s when they saw the faded brown Velcro wallet. Picking it up and looking inside, Flippin and her daughter found old credit cards, a faded driver’s license and part of a $100 dollar bill. A key was tucked into a zipper pouch. Amazingly, a AAA card, with a 1981 expiration date, was in perfect condition. So was the name on the card: Jeff Boes.

Leaving the lake that afternoon, the Flippins took the wallet contents but left the wallet behind. Searching on the Internet, Flippin managed to locate Jeff’s sister-in-law, Betsy Boes.

“It was so cool” to find the right family, said Flippin. Realizing she had a direct hit, “Me and my dad went back up to the lake and grabbed the wallet,” said Flippin.

Meanwhile, Betsy Boes called Jeff Boes, who now lives in Windsor.

“She said a lady was trying to find me because she found my wallet at the lake. I had no idea what she was talking about,” said Boes.

Finally, it dawned on him  — the wreck in 1981.

“I called the lady and talked to her. I was so thankful,” Boes said. “I couldn’t believe she went out of her way to return it.”

Reunited with his wallet, Boes recognized it instantly. “My first wallet. It’s unbelievable,” he said.

What is Boes going to do with the wallet and contents?

“I’m probably going to frame it,” he said. “It’s my little miracle.”