Good Samaritan leads car burglary victims to stolen items dumped in trash

HOUSTON -- Car break-ins may be fairly common, but you may not hear about the victims getting their stolen items back very often.

That is what happened to two victims Thursday.

Brett Schriewer tells Eyewitness News he left his briefcase under the front seat of his truck while he went inside a restaurant. When he came out, he found his back window shattered and his briefcase was stolen.

"My iPod, external hard drive, and I'm working on my dissertation, so most of my dissertation stuff was on that hard drive," Schriewer says.

Chris Simons says he found himself in a similar situation, except his windows were not broken. His briefcase, however, was gone.

"I had a couple of surgeries this month, so I had pain medicine in there," Simons says, "Full bottles that were untouched, unopened."

Meanwhile, another man says his co-worker's briefcase was stolen from his car, too.

"When I left the building after work, I thought I would stop by the dumpster just to see if maybe it had been thrown in the dumpster," Marty McVey said.

McVey found not one, but three black briefcases. He was able to contact two of the victims based on the information in the briefcases.

Schriewer says he is extremely grateful, especially since the thief didn't take the hard drive with the dissertation research.

"Thank God they left it!," Schriewer says.

Both Schriewer and Simons say they will pass on the kindness they received from a stranger.