Police dept. works to pair about 1,000 pairs of shoes with owners

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Hundreds of shoes are in the process of being returned to their owners after a shop was forced to shut down.

South Charleston Police Chief Brad Rinehart said the effort is a major undertaking.

“Sometimes it is hard to tell what these numbers are,” said Rinehart. “2-3-9 for one shoe, maybe that shoe is in another one of those I don’t know.”

Rinehart said he has spent a lot of time already to hopefully reunite nearly 1,000 pairs of shoes with their owner.

Rinehart said the business was behind on city fees and was issued a cease and desist order in March. Before then, there were numerous complaints and Rinehart said Taylor Brothers Shoe Repair was forced to close after more than 90 years.

“When they would come here, we would send a police man over and sometimes he found them, sometimes he didn’t. I can see why now with 1,000 pair of shoes,” Rinehart said.

Some shoes have numbers on them, while others do not, but the department is working above and beyond to return them.

“And this, the calls will flood in,” Rinehart said. “And try to call those people and have them come in and pick their shoes up, and then we will go through another big batch and just keep repeating that.”

If you believe shoes were dropped off at Taylor Brothers Shoe Repair in South Charleston, call the South Charleston Police Dept. at 304-744-6903.

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