A thrift store volunteer stumbled upon a Purple Heart service medal from the 1950s when sorting through donated items that had been dropped off. Assuming the role of detective, she successfully located the family of the serviceman who owned the Purple Heart and returned the medal, three decades after his death. The medal came as a shock to the family, offering new insight into the man who once served his country in Korea. “This is the first one where I’ve been successful finding the family,” said Teresa Ferrin, who volunteers once a week at Christian Family Care Thrift Store in Phoenix, Arizona, to CBS 5. Part of Ferrin’s job involves pricing donated items before displaying them for sale in the store. In early February, a donor dropped off a collection of military awards mounted on cardboard, one of which was the Purple Heart, an award given to those wounded or killed in the …