Poll volunteer looking for owner of coat given to him on cold Election Day morning

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Election security was top of mind for many voters standing in long lines before reaching the ballot box. For one man volunteering at a polling place, he experienced kindness in the form of a warm coat given to him. Now, he needs help returning it to its owner.

"Feels just as warm as it did Tuesday," said Larry Smith, as he put on the long green coat.

In the 1960's, olive drab was Smith's color during the Vietnam War. Sixty years later, it's the color of kindness for this marine.

Smith fought for the American way and has the battle scars and stories to prove it. Still believing in the process Tuesday, he volunteered at the polling place where he's been voting for the past 15 years, Crown Heights Christian Church.

"I thought I'd see it from a different side," said Smith.

Smith remembers it being a cold Election Day morning.

"It was exactly the temperature Mike told us it was going to be," said Larry Smith.

"Cloudy in the morning but basically dry," said News 4's Mike Morgan during his Monday evening forecast, with a big '49' placed over OKC.

"Then wind was probably blowing 10 miles per hour," said Smith.

Smith was only wearing a short-sleeved shirt and pants. He thought he'd be working inside. Instead, he was outside working the long lines.

"After about two hours there, I started shivering, and my shoulder muscles were tightening up," said Smith. "You can be out in elements like that and be able to develop hypothermia. So, that's what I thought was going on."

But, Smith stayed. He said he didn't want to make any other worker come from the warm inside to the parking lot.

In the line, Smith said there was a tall young man. Likely in his 20's, at least 6 feet tall, with collar-length brown wavy hair.

"And kind eyes," said Smith.

Smith said the man offered him the coat twice, but he refused.

"The third time I came by he said, 'I can't let you do this. You've got to take the coat, I have jacket in my car," said Smith.

That's when he finally took the man up on the offer.

"I started to warm up right away," said Smith.

The man wrote down his address on a piece of paper, voted, then headed home.

However, Smith lost the note.

Since that day, Smith said he drove up and down the street he believes the man lives on, but had no luck.

Now, he's reaching out through the TV and on the internet, because when generosity checks all the boxes, it simply cannot go unnoticed.

"You have to return a kindness somehow," said Smith.