Officer reunites grandmother, gift

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. -- It took more than two months but one grandma in Illinois finally has a special Christmas present, thanks to some detective work by a Blue Springs police officer.

The story of the wayward package began Nov. 30, when officer Tommy Thompson found it lying on a road near Interstate 70 in Blue Springs. The tag on the present said "To Grandma, from Brenda."

After a 60-day holding period, evidence technician Dave Link was cleared to dispose of the package, so he opened it. He found it a personal gift: a scrapbook, made by a grown granddaughter of her memories growing up with "Grandma O." Link determined from a photo of a family mailbox that he needed to find the name Halleman, and his research guided him to central Illinois.

"Grandma O" turned out to be Orlena Halleman of Nokomis, Ill. He mailed the package to Halleman Tuesday.