In the mail last week was a box with a return address of the Brisbane City Council. There was no way to identify exactly who the sender was, or from which department inside the council structure it came.
Inside the box was an Australian Service Medal with clasp Timor Leste. The cardboard sleeve around the medal box shows water damage and the medal is rusty. This medal has been out in the elements for a while.
As soon as I saw the name on the box a bell of familiarity started to ring. As it turns out this medal was awarded to the son of someone I've served with in the past. It took about 30 minutes to track down my colleague's phone number and then it was catch up time as well as explain how the medal came my way. What we don't know was how the medal was lost in the first place.
Thank you to the unknown Good Smartian in the Brisbane City Council.
The returned medal tally is now 2881.
