Madison Reeve, Castanet — Not all heroes wear capes… some give back shoes.

Jeff Brown works for William Wright Commercial Real Estate Services in Kelowna.

He has volunteered to help the landlords of Galaxy Shoe Repair, located on Ellis Street, return items to the community after the owner of the store, Jimi Belshaw, has been sick and therefore unable to work or return.

The landlords of the building on Ellis Street will be taking back the space for lease.

Brown says hundreds of items have been left in the store with both sentimental and monetary value.

“We represent the landlord in their leasing activities. It’s very overwhelming, the number of items in the store, and they need help in trying to return these items to everybody. Obviously, it has been a number of months, and people are very desperate to get their stuff back,” Brown said.

“I kind of just put my hand up and said that we can work and help. Then we can try and help them find another tenant.”

Brown says well over 100 items are sitting in the store.

Cathy Pearce lives in Lake Country and was reunited with her Louis Vuitton bag on Wednesday after waiting a year for it to be repaired.

“I was upset about it. It’s a $4,000 bag. [The owner] wasn’t taking calls, emails, anything.”

Pearce says her bag was a gift and holds sentimental value. She says she was overjoyed to get it back after Brown called her.

“I ran down to get my purse, and I took him a bottle of wine to say thank you. What a nice thing he is doing. When I went into the store and saw it, I thought what a daunting task. There is a ton of stuff,” she said.

Brown says he’s learned some people even paid upfront to have their items repaired.

“Everybody has been more than patient trying to get their stuff back. We are doing our best to get it done in a timely manner.”

Brown says those who have items in the store are asked to email [email protected] with a ticket number and description of their item, and he will be in touch.

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Read the full article published by Castanet.