South Jersey family reunited with priceless military memento

FOX 29 is getting results tonight reuniting a South Jersey family with an American flag. All because a Good Samaritan got us involved and we got you involved.

READ MORE: Local man hopes to reunite military memento with rightful owner

For the first time since her big brother Larry's death, 14 years ago, Loretta Pipitone Gazzara has the American flag that once draped his casket.

"It's very touching to me. I mean, I'm gonna keep it. I'll definitely keep it," she told FOX 29.

Dave Nunez of Vineland gave us the flag in hopes that we could find its rightful owner. He says he bought it from a stranger for 20-bucks, suspecting it had been part of a veteran's funeral.

Loretta didn't see our original story, detailing our efforts to find the flag's family, but a childhood classmate in our viewing area did, and quickly called her.

"She saw Pipitone and she said, 'I went to school with a Pipitone," she explained.

A couple of phone calls later, and Loretta had her brother's flag- emblematic of his World War II service in the Army Air Corps.

We visited Larry's gravesite for our original report-- his Italian name was Florindo. Loretta remembers his 2002 funeral, and believes a family member would have been given the flag from his casket.

Well, now it's back where it belongs.

Loretta wanted us to publicly thank Dave Nunez for making the effort to buy the flag in the first place and then take the time to reach out to us to try to find the rightful owners.