After searching almost a week for a man’s lost car, a St. Paul cabdriver returned the vehicle to its owner on Monday.

The 80-year-old Wisconsin man parked his car in a ramp in downtown St. Paul on Dec. 4. He walked several blocks to a business meeting. After his appointment, he walked back to the ramp and searched for his car for five hours to no avail. He rented a motel room in downtown for the night with hopes of finding his car in the morning.

The man, who asked not to be named, was exhausted from the search the following day and hailed a nearby cab for a ride to his Polk County home, an hour northeast of downtown St. Paul. The driver was Minneapolis resident Sheryl Hanson, whose mother, Kay, owns All City Cab.

Sheryl Hanson spoke to him for most of the ride.

“He was so hard on himself, kinda giving up hope a lot,” she said.

He gave her details of where he believed the car was and asked her to keep an eye out for it. He even gave her the keys so she could return the vehicle if she found it.

Sheryl Hanson searched every day that week, calling the man for more tips of where it could possibly be.

“My heartstrings were tugged so hard by this man,” she said. “I got his phone number and I called to get more tips on where he thought it was and help him recall his memory. Each day I got a new clue. I wasn’t going to give up until I found it.”

The car still hadn’t turned up by the weekend, so the Wisconsin man called the Polk County sheriff’s office Sunday to report it missing.

But Sheryl Hanson was still looking. Seeing that most of the downtown parking ramps were empty Sunday night, she made another pass through them. She finally spotted the man’s 2013 Chevrolet Captiva about 1 a.m. Monday in the Capital City Plaza parking ramp between Fourth Street and Kellogg Boulevard.

“I called him immediately. He kinda started crying, not believing we found it,” she said. “I kept saying, ‘I told you I’d never give up.'”

Sheryl and Kay Hanson returned the vehicle around 3 p.m. that day. They were greeted by representatives of the Polk County sheriff’s office, who later posted the happy outcome on Facebook.

“We were praying every day the Lord would lead her to the car, and we were sure he would,” Kay Hanson said.