Austin man claims 1978 time capsule left inside wall in California home

FONTANA, CA -- A Texas man has come forward to say he was the 12-year-old boy who left behind a time capsule in 1978 in the walls of his family's then-home in Fontana, California.

Robert Wright, now 49, left behind a time capsule capturing the era. Greg Sandoval's parents were renovating their house when they found the small baggie, stuffed 36 years ago.

It included a note written by Wright, some coins, a McDonald's coupon and other newspaper clippings to prove the date.

"Hello to whoever finds this. My name is Robert Wright. Today my dad is putting up paneling. Today is November 18th, 1978, 15 till 12:00 noon. I'm 12 years old and a student at Fontana JR. High, 7th grade. I am 5'3, blond hair, hazel eyes. Here is proof of the date. Robert Wright," the note read.

What Sandoval thought would be an easy find, though, was not -- there are a lot of Robert Wright's out there.

"Initially, I did a search on Facebook for the person's name. I didn't get any results, so I gave up, but I couldn't just throw it away," Sandoval said.

That was more than four years ago. But last weekend, Sandoval told Eyewitness News about the time capsule. Our sister station in Los Angeles did a quick story and we picked it up here in Houston. That's where friends and family recognized the name and reached out to Wright on Facebook.

"My Facebook page was all kind of lit up with all these notifications, and it was like, 'Hey, this is you, this is you,'" Wright said.

The 49-year old version of Robert Wright now lives in Austin, Texas and works as a physician assistant.

Amazingly, the ragged note which consisted of 16 cents and other assorted artifacts were the subject of a conversation Wright had with his father, just a few months ago.

"We were reminiscing and said, 'Hey do you remember when we did that time capsule thing and put it in the wall? I wonder if anyone will ever find it,'" Wright said.

Someone did find it and now Wright has found it as well, thanks to the power of social media.

"Otherwise, I probably would have never known that it was found and that somebody had it," Wright said.

It was junk to most folks, except for the boy who hid it and the man who refused to trash it.

"What a great, interesting, nifty treasure to find," Wright said.