Update 3.58pm - Adds owner's comments

If a thief pinched your purse, would you ever imagine it being returned to you, soggy but functional, a whole year later?  

Scuba diver Raniero Borg and his daughter Martina were swimming along the sea floor in Buġibba last week when an odd find led to them reuniting a little black clutch bag with its rightful owner. 

"I couldn't believe it," Simone Micallef told Times of Malta. "I had reported the theft to the police and even saw CCTV footage of it happening, but never expected to see it again." 

Mr Borg recorded the entire event, from discovery to happy conclusion, and posted the video on Facebook.

"We were by the Buġibba water fountain when we noticed something nestled in the seabed. Martina picked it up and we immediately noticed it was a purse full of personal items," Mr Borg told Times of Malta.

The father-and-daughter duo resurfaced and set about taking a closer look at their find. Ms Micallef's ID card, credit cards and driving license all gave them a name to work with. 

"We thought we'd try find the owner on Facebook. And it worked!" a delighted Mr Borg exclaimed. 

Ms Micallef laughed as she recalled the initial conversation. 

"I received a message from a stranger asking if I had lost a purse. Imagine my surprise when they told me they had found it 15 metres under water!" 

The mobile phone and money Ms Micallef had stashed away in the purse were nowhere to be seen, but everything else remained intact. 

"I carry a photo of my father in my wallet, and you would never be able to tell it spent a year at the bottom of the sea," she said. 

Mr Borg, who last July made headlines with a video highlighting a dangerous spike at Qawra Point pool, said it was the first piece of underwater detective work he had ever done. 

But although he's likely to be telling the story of the missing wallet for years to come, it can't quite beat the oddest item he ever found beneath the waves. 

"Years ago I came across a brand new car sitting on the ocean floor. It looked like it had been driven from the showroom straight into the sea," he recalled. 

 

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