Phone a friend: New Zealand’s two degrees of separation helps return backpack stolen in San Francisco to Whanganui girl

Sophia Spencer with her returned bag.

A distinctive Whanganui logo and New Zealand’s famous few degrees of separation have aided the return of a stolen backpack, retrieved from a San Francisco garden, to its grateful owner.

Whanganui’s Spencer family arrived in San Francisco on holiday last Sunday after attending a wedding in Canada. They were headed to Placerville, about two hours northeast, but decided to spend the day in San Francisco with all their luggage in a rental car.

“We had been very careful where we were parking,” Felicity Spencer said. “My daughter really wanted to see the house where Full House was filmed. It’s in one of the most affluent suburbs.”

They parked up and went to check out the house. “We were gone literally 25 minutes,” Spencer said.

When they returned, about 4pm, the windows of their rental car had been smashed and most of their luggage stolen.

“We only had the clothes we were wearing. Our kids were all devastated.”

Spencer said there was nothing of huge value, “just stuff that’s not replaceable”.

Sophia, Felicity, Kaitlyn, Cameron and Russell Spencer at San Francisco police station after having all their luggage stolen.

The Spencers reported the incident to San Francisco police, who said such incidents were common. The family accepted they were unlikely to get anything back.

But just over a mile away, Chuck Stephanski found daughter Sophia’s red backpack, with a distinctive Whanganui Boys & Girls Gym Club logo, dumped in a garden.

When he realised the bag belonged to a New Zealander, he needed to make only one call to track down the owner.

The distinctive backpack was returned to the Whanganui family after being found in a San Francisco garden.

He called his friend Shannon Quirke, from Wellington. Quirke put the story on Facebook with a photo of the bag and its distinctive logo. Spencer was quickly tagged in it and put in touch with Stephanski.

“You’ve got to love small-town New Zealand,” Spencer said.

“I had all these people messaging me. The box arrived today so Sophia has her backpack back with pretty much everything in it.

“It’s nice to know there’s some lovely people in the world still. There’s always good people out there.”