William Shatner Leaves Wallet at Fruit Stand, Owner Returns It

The owner of a fresh produce stand in Gilroy, California, was stunned when he discovered a wallet left behind in one of his bins of corn.

The owner was none other than William Shatner. 

The "Star Trek" actor had stopped by to purchase cherries the day before on his way to Beverly Hills and was served by owner Gary Tognetti, his daughter and a friend, who were unaware that they were assisting the man famously known as Captain Kirk, according to The Washington Post. 

The next day, Tognetti’s 15-year-old daughter handed him the wallet, and a driver's license belonging to Shatner was discovered. Determined to have the wallet returned Tognetti contacted a friend at the Gilroy Police Department, officer Mark Tarasco, who said he would help contact Shatner. 

"I told Gary, 'Hey, let me help you out.' I was on my way to work, met up with a few folks there to include Sgt. John Ballard who has some detective experience," Tarasco told ABC7. "And I asked him, 'Hey, how do I get a hold of a celebrity?'"

Tognetti said he also reached out to a contact at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, which resulted in some friendly competition to return the wallet to Shatner.  

"It was a race to try to figure out who was gonna contact Mr. Shatner first," Tarasco said. "If you were to call Beverly Hills PD, they would tell you that there was a few different people calling, trying to get a hold of Mr. Shatner in Beverly Hills."

Within two hours they were able to connect with Shatner's agent, who arranged for the wallet to be sent via FedEx overnight back to the star in Beverly Hills. Several days later Shatner took to Twitter to thank Tognetti and his wife as well as Tarasco and the Gilroy police.

Now Tognetti said he is thinking about putting up a sign outside the stand that says, "William Shatner was here."

"I'm waiting for people to start popping in and say, Hey, is this where William shopped?" he told The Post.

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