Trooper, doughnut guy track down missing purse

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 1, 2000 | by John Kennon

LAMAR - Stranger things have happened.

In search of a new life for her son, Lisa Robles recently packed her car and drove away, leaving Oklahoma City in her rearview mirror just as the sun was setting. She had $87.43 to her name, and that money had to last until she reached her destination in Fort Collins.

But midway through her overnight journey, Robles realized she lost her purse.

Panic set in.

While passing through Lamar early Dec. 11, Robles stopped for gasoline at JR's Country Store. After paying for the fuel, she jumped in her car and continued on her northbound journey. Though she didn't realize it at the time, Robles left her purse on the hood of her car before she headed out of town. The purse fell off the vehicle on the highway.

Just before 3 a.m., state trooper Chad Hunt found the purse in the northbound lane of U.S. 50/287 and took it to officer Mark Headlee at the Lamar Police Department. According to Headlee's report, he opened the purse and inventoried the contents. He tried to find Robles by calling the two motels near the location where the purse was found. But there was no record for Robles at either the Cow Palace Inn or the Days Inn, so Headlee put the purse in the evidence locker.

Later that morning, Rick Mader, owner of Daylight Donuts, was making his usual delivery to the Days Inn. He said the clerk at the motel asked him if he knew anyone named Lisa Robles because she had lost her purse on the highway in the middle of the night. Mader said he did not know the woman but hoped she was all right.

On most Saturdays, Mader makes his deliveries early and then goes home to bed.

But since he had some extra help at work on this particular Saturday, he was out later than usual and decided to stop by JR's Country Store at around 7:30 a.m.

"As I pull up to JR's I see this lady with her head in a trash can, and I'm thinking we don't need anybody digging in trash cans for food, maybe I can get her something to eat," he said.

But as he got out of his truck, another thought occurred to him. Perhaps this was the woman who had lost her purse.

"So I walked up to her and said, 'What is your name?' She said it was Lisa," Mader said. "Lisa Robles?" he asked with some surprise.

The woman started to back up, wary of the stranger who wanted to know her name. When Mader asked her if she was Lisa Robles, her look of concern changed to astonishment. He told her the police found her purse on the highway, and he gave her directions to the station.

"She said, 'God sent you my way and you are the answer to my prayers,'" Mader said.

Cpl. Ron Trout said Robles drove into the back lot of the police department a few minutes later, asking how she could get her purse back. Trout located the report and then asked one of the evidence technicians to come to the department to release the purse to Robles. She was elated to see that all of the money was still inside.

"She was excited," Trout said. "She figured it was gone. Her money was in it along with her IDs."