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Canadian man searches for owner of WWII medals

(Facebook/Martin Bokesch)

A British Columbia man has taken to social media in hopes of reuniting four World War II medals with their rightful owner.

Martin Bokesch from Vernon, B.C., recently posted a Facebook plea along with two photos of the Canadian veteran medals.

“Please, as a tribute to those that fought and served, lets find the owner,” Bokesch wrote. “Share the heck out of this please!”

The post has been shared more than 37,000 times.

“It’s gotten way beyond what I ever imagined it would do,” Bokesch told CTV News.

The medals were found by his wife when she was cleaning an old desk she’d bought at a furniture dealer in Montreal, according to Bokesch’s post.

The box containing the medals was addressed to Dorothy I. Priest of Timmins, Ontario, and the name J. Nicholls is handwritten across the centre.

Bokesch reached out to the Royal Canadian Legion but they couldn’t help him because “they do not have a database that can be searched,” he wrote.

He then contacted the Department of Veterans Affairs but hasn’t received a reply yet.

“It now has more meaning than I would have thought possible and obviously with all the replies I’ve got, it obviously means a great deal to many, many Canadians across the country,” he told CBC News.

Bokesch hasn’t had much success in his search so far, but told BuzzFeed that he’s found “the daughter of the woman whose name is on the box,” and they will be in contact soon.