Facilities Services Staff Go Above and Beyond to Return Lost Passport to Student

Steve Ruge, left, of Syracuse Haulers, and Joe Lore from Facilities Services hold the missing passport they located on Monday.

The University’s Facilities Services team is known for working behind the scenes—without fanfare—to make University operations run smoothly and to handle unique situations. This past weekend, the team, together with local contractor Syracuse Haulers, pulled off a miracle of epic proportions.

The team’s weekend dispatcher, Seamus Moran, received a call from a student that they had accidentally put their passport in with items that they recycled. Moran notified the team’s weekend supervisor, Macky MacPherson, who in turn contacted Joe Lore, supervisor of facility maintenance and project services.

Lore immediately reached out to Steve Ruge, his contact at Syracuse Haulers, and asked that they put a hold on removing the contents of the recycling truck that had come from the University that day. Lore told Ruge he would be at the company’s East Syracuse facility at 7 a.m. on Monday morning to begin looking for the passport.

Lore did not hesitate to begin the search, even though he knew it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. For him, dad mode kicked in. “I realized it was next to impossible,” he says. “I kept thinking if it were my son or daughter though, I would at least want somebody to have looked for the passport, even if they did not find it.”

Lore and Ruge searched through more than three tons of recycling and garbage to find the missing passport

Syracuse Haulers placed the contents from the truck that had picked up the University’s recycling on Sunday into a large bay at their facility. Early Monday morning, Lore and Ruge began the search for the passport through more than three tons of recycling. “While we were looking, I said a prayer to St. Anthony, who is the patron saint of finding lost belongings,” Lore says.

Ruge found the passport 45 minutes later, and Lore was able to return it later that morning to the grateful student.

“Regardless of the task, the team always steps up and gets the job done—that is what we do,” says Pete Sala, vice president and chief campus facilities officer. “We are stewards of this campus, and our job is to help the students, faculty and staff, no matter what the challenge may be.”

Lore says this is the strangest request that he has ever seen during his time in Facilities Services. And he was glad he could help a student in need.

Not all superheroes wear capes.