Robert Gibson had time for a hot shower before his bus was due to leave the Pittsburgh Greyhound station. He locked the door to the entrance of his private stall and left his Air Force uniform in an area just two feet away.

As he lathered up, someone rifled through his pristine dress uniform and stole his wallet.

Inside it were Mr. Gibson's identification, baby picture, $300, family photos and even a Communist sighting report given to Cold War era soldiers stationed in Germany.

That was in 1962.

Yesterday, Mr. Gibson, who now lives in North Carolina, got a call from an Army captain stationed in Pittsburgh.

"Before he could even say a word, I said, 'You found my wallet,' " said a now 70-year-old Mr. Gibson, in an interview from his home in Linwood, N.C.

"How it got where [it was found], I don't know. I haven't taken a shower in a bus station since."

An asbestos removal technician found Mr. Gibson's black leather wallet on Wednesday at the former bus station that is slowly becoming a pile of rubble.

Covered in dust and asbestos, the wallet had laid undisturbed all this time since a criminal hand lifted it from Mr. Gibson's shower stall 40 years ago.

The wallet survived the Cold War, man landing on the moon, a 1980s real estate boom and a stock market bust, 9/11 and nine U.S. presidents, one of whom was impeached. And just as a second Gulf war drew to a close, Mr. Gibson was once again reunited with his wallet.

"You will find some stuff, but nothing as interesting as this," said LeRoy Fillmore, the asbestos removal worker from Laborers Local 373 who found the wallet. "It runs the whole gamut. My friend once found a Nolan Ryan card."

Mr. Fillmore found it on the ground near some pipes he was inspecting and clearing of asbestos early Wednesday morning.

The wallet seemed inconspicuous on the surface, but as he looked it over and stared at the yellowed photographs and the Air Force identification card dating to the early 1960s, Mr. Fillmore knew this was something someone had missed.

He called the local Army recruiting office and got in touch with Capt. Jason Hearn. Capt. Hearn was able to track down Mr. Gibson through Army records and called him.

Mr. Gibson yesterday recalled that his brief stop in Pittsburgh occurred while he was going home on leave after serving almost a year and half in Germany as a staff sergeant repairing airplanes. He decided to take a hot shower before boarding his bus to Clarksburg, W.Va., in 1962.

Mr. Gibson left the station with his bus ticket, but no wallet, no identification and no way of proving his time in the service besides the uniform on his back.

He even went back to the bus terminal in Pittsburgh a few weeks after the wallet was stolen in an elaborate attempt to lure the bus terminal pickpocket into an ambush.

He sat near the running shower and pretended to sing while waiting in the shower's steam to give whomever dared to test the accomplished serviceman's patience a "$200 butt-whuppin."

The whuppin never happened, but more than 40 years later, Mr. Gibson is just happy to have his wallet back.

"I want it for sentimental reasons," said Mr. Gibson. "It's not every hip 'n' stitch that someone finds the wallet they lost 40 years ago."