Christmas came early for Atlanta-based real estate developer and avid golfer Michael Barnouin, who was recently gifted back his stolen cowhide wallet that he bought in Montana.
The culprit – a gull scavenger with white feathered arms, webbed feet and thin beak – often roamed in bunches near Pebble Beach Golf Links, a public golf course at Pebble Beach Resort in Monterey, California.
Barnouin, 30, was playing there for the first time earlier this year on Aug. 7 after finishing a residential renovation project in nearby Carmel.
‘One of my favorite things about taking trips down to Carmel is just throughout Monterey County, you have some of the best golf courses in the in the country,’ Barnouin said. ‘You’ve got Pebble Beach (Golf Links), you have Spyglass Hill, you’ve got Spanish Bay. I personally like Carmel Valley Ranch.’
Pebble Beach Golf Links also happens to be where basketball Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade hit his first-ever hole in one. Barnouin would’ve never considered any threat to his belongings, certainly not a herring gull seabird commonly referred to as a seagull.
‘I’m playing really well. I was having a great round. Hole 7 is the kind of famous par three, you know that Dwyane Wade hit that hole in one,’ Barnouin said. ‘Hole 8, it’s a it’s a long par 4 and you’ve got to kind of lay up and then you have this Bay that that you have to kind of smack it onto the green for your second shot over.’
Barnouin took his swing and got the ball over the water and eventually finished the hole. As he’s setting up for the ninth hole, people he’s playing with tell him that a seagull is in his cart.
Golf is a sport that requires concentration. Silence during one’s swing is a display of sportsmanship, so naturally Barnouin was ‘kind of frustrated’ when they were talking during his backswing.
‘I don’t care about the seagull in my golf cart,’ he said. ‘It can take whatever it wants.’
Little did he know that it was making off with his cowhide wallet.
‘When I turn around to go back to my cart, I notice a seagull is standing on the seat and it’s got something in its mouth. It was my wallet,’ said Barnouin. ‘And so stupidly I start to chase it and I’ve got my driver in my hand. I start to chase the seagull and it kind of goes down the fairway.’
He added: ‘I don’t think seagulls are that stupid either because this thing kept looking back at me as if I knew that I was chasing it and it knew that I wanted what was in its mouth.’
As the seagull had his wallet locked in its beak, flying around the bay, others quickly began to swarm it, assuming it was food. Seconds later, it was dropped.
Barnouin and other golf mates searched for the wallet, but cold temperatures near the water made them stop and finish the round of golf. Barnouin said he ‘played terrible the next two holes’ before getting it together. He searched the next day at low tide but to no avail, assuming the tides washed it away.
‘Welcome home wallet’
Barnouin never thought he would see his wallet again. He canceled his credit and debit cards.
Months later, he received some mail at one of his properties in Carmel from someone named Erik Bueno.
Bueno is a retired Southern California real estate agent who has spent the decade traveling. He said he owns a couple of rentals in Carmel, and when one of them is empty, he’ll go and stay a while.
‘This particular trip, I stayed six weeks and while I’m there I walk a lot and I go look for golf balls sometimes at low tide,’ Bueno said. ‘I would say I found his wallet maybe around the 20th of October then mailed it out.’
Bueno, 68, wrote a letter that read ‘I found your wallet with AMEX and VISA cards. No cash. Do you want me to mail or trash them?’ and signed off with his name and number.
‘He contacted me and then I took the wallet and a Ziploc bag of golf balls to his buddy’s house,’ Bueno told USA TODAY Sports.
‘I always walk a lot and I always look for golf balls for a couple of reasons. One, it’s great exercise,’ Bueno said. ‘Number two, I want to get the golf balls out of the ocean because it pollutes the ocean. The balls will rub and scratch, the fish will eat the plastic.’
He’ll also donate the balls to junior golf because he said that it’s ‘kind of expensive to play Pebble Beach.’
‘It’s an amazing golf course. So everyone that plays there, they’re usually playing with like excellent golf balls. So I tend to find a lot of Titleist Pro V ones. And then I donate them to junior golf and they love it.’
Bueno found 1,200 golf balls in three days, he said. He knows where to search because it’s the same spot many people get hung up at. The same eighth hole that Barnouin chased the seagull around before his wallet was dropped.
‘It’s the second shot on No. 8 that everybody dumps into the ocean and I didn’t find his ball, but I found his wallet right there on the ocean,’ Bueno said. ‘I think I had mailed the driver’s license and that’s one of the things I thought he wanted the most.’
Bueno certainly could understand where Barnouin was coming from because nearly 25 years ago the same experience happened to him.
‘I played Pebble Beach many times, but about 20 to 25 years ago I was playing with my dad and a seagull came down, took my wallet out of my golf cart,’ Bueno said. ‘But it dropped it right next to the cart. He didn’t fly away with it. My story was not as fun as Michael’s dumping in the ocean. But yeah, my wallet got snagged also.’
Barnouin was ‘absolutely ecstatic’ to get his wallet back and said he plans to play at Pebble Beach again, but next time he’ll be sticking to Apple Wallet, instead.
However, this is a core memory for Barnouin.
‘I don’t know if I birdied the hole eight, but I certainly parred because I remember I was not that upset going into the hole nine, but I did not think I’d get a seagull on hole nine,’ Barnouin said. ‘People are looking for albatross as birdies. I’m the only guy who’s ever gotten ‘seagull’ on Pebble Beach.’