A formerly homeless man was in for the shock of his life after being interviewed for a 2015 article and news report about a soup kitchen that had offered him Christmas Eve dinner that same year.
The article, like so many others, has remained online ever since and was likely forgotten by most — until Mark Lloyd’s former employer found it via Google search and used it to reach out to him with some stunning news.
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See, Lloyd had worked as an auditor for a hotel in Rochester, New York, in the 1980s before he eventually lost everything and became homeless. He had closed his IRA account from that job, but had apparently forgotten about his profit-sharing benefits, according to WHAM-TV.
Then, the years forged on and the B.F. Saul Company & Affiliates, the hospitality company that was holding those funds, apparently sought Lloyd out, turning to Google to try and locate him; that’s when they discovered the 2015 news article that included some quotes from him.
So, it was the article about his meal at the Open Door Mission that finally helped lead the company to find Lloyd and inform him about what WHAM called “a pretty big check.”
“He said, ‘Is this Mark Spencer Lloyd?’ And I said, ‘Yeah’ but I was really thinking ‘Oh no,'” Lloyd told WHAM of the surprising phone call he received on Tuesday, noting that he generally doesn’t receive many calls. “He says, ‘I’ve been trying to get a hold of you about your profit sharing’ and I said, ‘Whoa!’ Then he told me the dollar amount and I said, ‘Oh my God.'”
The development comes as Lloyd has reportedly made strides to find a stable and permanent place to live. He told WHAM that he’s “in a pretty good place right now” and plans to put the funds in an IRA account.
WHAM declined to share the amount of the check.