The dog tags were hidden in the pocket of a suitcase, forgotten by a soldier at some point.
Jason Baker was scouring the bins at the Goodwill Outlet Store in Greenwood when he came across the bag on Wednesday morning. He runs a business selling items on eBay, and regularly canvases the Goodwill Outlet for the unique and eclectic.
This time, when he unzipped a side storage on an unremarkable piece of luggage, he found something of more value than any piece of jewelry or left-behind money.
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The name on the tags was Roger Kelty, and Baker got to work looking for him so he could return the tags. Less than 24 hours later, he had located Kelty, a veteran of the U.S. Army, Army Reserve and Air National Guard living in Charlestown, an Indiana town near Louisville.
For Kelty, learning that the tags had been found was a shock.
“I really did appreciate him calling me back, going to all the trouble to find out. They did mean a lot to me, and I did want those,” Kelty said.
Baker owns an internet-based business, Baker’s Collectibles, which specializes in sports memorabilia, baseball cards and autographs. The Greenwood resident stops into the Goodwill Outlet every day or two to check out new merchandise and potential items he can resell.
In his searches, he has come across all kinds of different finds hidden in pockets: class rings, jewelry, even money.
“You find all kind of crazy stuff in there, so I always check the suitcases because you never know what you’re going to find,” he said.
With his experience on eBay, Baker said he always is surprised how many sets of dog tags are listed for sale. Some are being sold by the owners of the tags, but often the items have been found by others and put up to be sold.
“I have no idea why those sellers wouldn’t do just what I did and at least try to find the owner or the family,” he said.
After finding the dog tags, Baker was determined to track Kelty down. Starting with his last name, Baker went online to do searches on Facebook and the White Pages. He spent the day piecing together possible contacts for him.
Finally, he was able to connect to one of Kelty’s relatives, who messaged Baker to let him know that Kelty would call him.
On Thursday morning, Kelty and Baker connected over the phone.
Kelty served for more than 30 years in the Army, Army Reserve and Air National Guard. He comes from a large military family, with nearly every member serving in the Navy, Air Force or Army. His service has always been a point of pride with him.
He and his wife had recently moved, and his theory is that while sorting their possessions and packing up, he accidentally put the dog tags in the suitcase.
“I must have put some stuff that I wanted to keep in the wrong pile,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting them back.”
Baker mailed the dog tags back to Kelty on Thursday afternoon. Searching for the owner of the dog tags just seemed like the right thing to do, Baker said. But he also felt a personal urging to do everything he could to return them.
His father-in-law, Gary Yagley, was a U.S. Navy veteran who lost his own set of tags over the years. After Yagley died on Thanksgiving Day in 2016, his family had hoped to find the dog tags among his possessions. They never could locate them.
“Those dog tags are his one earthly possession that we can’t seem to locate, at least that we care to find,” he said.
Baker, a devout Christian, doesn’t want to use the term “karma,” but he hopes that in some way, returning these dog tags to Kelty will help his family find the tags that belonged to Yagley.
He pointed to a Biblical verse from Hebrews 13:16: “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
“I figured maybe someone will find (Yagley’s) down the road,” Baker said.
