After losing his piano tools in November, 83-year-old Don peterson can safely say today that there are good people in the world. 

Nine months after his tools disappeared, they returned to Peterson on Tuesday, having never been touched.

"Basically, people are good," he said.

After tuning a piano in a home near 1190 East and 1040 South in Orem on Nov. 7, Peterson loaded some tools into his car and drove away, leaving his tuning kit on the side of the road. The kit containing a tuner, tuning hammers and various others tools is worth about $2,500, and tuning pianos is his only means of income.

He said he didn't realize his kit was missing until he arrived home in Highland, 20 minutes away from where he left the kit. When he returned to the site, the tools were gone.

At the time, Peterson did not know if city crews working nearby had taken them accidentally, or if perhaps a child had taken the strange-looking set. He even briefly wondered if someone had taken them to sell, but he didn't think they would have been much use.

"They open it, they say 'What is this?'" Peterson said at the time. "It wouldn't do anyone any good. They couldn't sell it anywhere."

Lindon resident Kim Tomlinson was in Orem golfing that day and in a hurry to get to a job for his tile company. He said he saw the tool case and didn't see anyone around they belonged to, so he picked them up and took them to his shop.

"When I got back to my shop, I set them out, and they kind of got buried," he said.

Tomlinson said he briefly looked inside the case, but hadn't seen Peterson's name inside. Tomlinson forgot about the tools until he was cleaning his shop nine months later. He then noticed the case again, and this time some compartments opened inside, one of which contained Peterson's contact information.

"I just feel bad that I didn't get them back to him before he bought new ones," Tomlinson said.SClBShauna Tomlinson, Kim's wife, said she had never had any idea what was in the case until the tools were returned. She said she was glad Peterson got them back, and she only wishes it had happened sooner.

"We were just always so busy, neither one of us took the time to look in [the case]," she said. When he called Peterson, Tomlinson said the man was excited to get his tools back, but he had not expected they would return. He had decided a child must have picked them up, and not knowing what they were, they were discarded and buried in a basement somewhere. "It sounded like he kind of gave up on them," Tomlinson said.

Peterson said he is very happy he was able to get his tools back, and he said Tomlinson is a "very nice man." While waiting for the tools to turn up, he had borrowed a set from Brigham Young University. He used the borrowed tools until he was able to afford a new set of his own. After a few months, he finally gave up on ever getting his tuning tools back.

At one point, Peterson said he got a call from the Timpanogos LDS Temple about something of his that had been turned in. Excited, he got dressed and hurried to the temple to hopefully claim his tools.

"And guess what it was?" he said. "My ballpoint pen."

Peterson said the experience shows that there are a lot of good people, and he was excited for the surprise phone call he received from Tomlinson on Tuesday.

"I'm just so happy that this turned out this way," he said.