A woman whose wallet was swiped in Central Park 27 years ago got a blast from the past when it was discovered last week stuffed inside the hollow of a dying cherry tree.
"I remember it like it was yesterday," said Upper East Side resident Ruth Bendik, 69, referring to Oct. 24, 1982, when her wallet was snatched as she watched the New York City Marathon.
"I was in the park, walking over to greet the runners after they finished, and I was in a crush of people, and all of a sudden, I realized my purse felt very light."
The wallet was found Tuesday by Josh Galiley, 32, a tree-care supervisor for the Central Park Conser vancy, after he took down a dying black cherry tree near Rumsey Playfield at East 72nd Street.
The blue leather wallet -- with no cash inside except for a 1982 penny -- was encrusted in dirt.
Severely discolored plastic photo holders encased credit cards from such long-ago city institutions as Bell Telephone and Manufacturers Hanover Trust Bank, as well as a student ID from Columbia University Teachers College and an employee ID from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
The only thing missing was her $20.
After Galiley and two park workers cut the tree into large pieces, he began to root about inside a hollow to finish the job.
"I started poking around with a shovel a little more, and it was at the base of the hole. It was clearly a woman's wallet at the bottom of five feet of compost," he said.
Galiley turned the wallet over to Central Park Precinct cops, and Detective Frank Irizarry returned it to Bendik a day later.
Bendik, a health-care professional who is a patron of the Central Park Conservancy, said she had often thought of having a tree or a bench named for herself in the park.
"I am thinking that after I am dead, maybe I ought to leave a part of me in the park," she said, "never expecting that I really was already part of the park."
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