Woman, 24, Tracks Down 72-Year-Old Man Who Used to Have Her Phone Number After She Receives Cryptic Text from Stranger (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• After being assigned a new work phone number in November 2025, Lauren Stevens started receiving spam messages addressed to someone else

• One of the texts caught her attention and led her to track down the number's past owner: a 72-year-old photographer

• Since then, the pair has formed an unlikely friendship where they now talk on the phone multiple times a day and see each other once or twice a week

A work phone number is usually just a tool — temporary, impersonal, and meant for strictly business. But for 24-year-old Lauren Stevens, a recycled number became the beginning of something far more meaningful.

In November 2025, after receiving a new number for her corporate job, Stevens was inundated with calls and messages meant for someone else. While most were easy to ignore, one message stood apart from the rest, not just because it used a funny nickname, but because it hinted at a creative world she had always felt drawn to.

“One day, I got a specific text message addressing someone named ‘Verndawg' asking the steps to get a specific photograph copyrighted in Washington D.C.,” Stevens tells PEOPLE exclusively.

As a California native now living in San Francisco, Stevens had long been drawn to creativity. From a young age, she was captivated by film photography, often collecting cameras, repairing them, and even reselling them in high school.

Her appreciation for storytelling only deepened over time, shaped by life experiences that included caring for her grandparents during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and later starting her own small jewelry business. So when that unusual message came through, it didn't feel random — it felt like a thread worth pulling.

“I have always loved humans, enjoy talking to strangers and learning about people's stories and lives,” Stevens shares.

Rather than letting the mystery fade, Stevens asked a friend, who she describes as "an internet detective," to help track down the person behind the number, and their search quickly led them to Wernher “Vern” Krutein — a 72-year-old photographer, archivist, and lifelong documentarian whose work spans decades and continents.

“Vern lived and worked in the Bay Area for many years, including operating a physical studio in San Francisco called Wernher Krutein Productions,” she explains. “He became widely known for his powerful images of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, including the Bay Bridge collapse, which preserved one of the city's most pivotal moments through his lens.”

Stevens reached out to Krutein on LinkedIn in December 2025, praising his extensive archive and asking to see more of his work — and to her surprise, he responded instantly.

“He then shipped me three posters of SF signed, ‘all the best, Wernher Krutein'. As if he was going to never hear from me again,” Stevens recalls. “Little did he know he was stuck with me.”

When the two finally spoke over the phone in January 2026, Stevens realized there was something deeper at play.

“It became very clear to me that Vern was not just a random person. He was a man with incredible curiosity, warmth, wisdom and appreciation for life,” she explains.

Their conversations became more frequent, stretching from photography to personal reflections, daily routines and shared philosophies. Over time, Stevens found herself not just listening, but learning — absorbing a perspective shaped by decades of experience.

“The more we talked, the more I realized how much I loved the way he saw the world. He has this ability to find meaning in everything, whether it is a photograph, a memory, a person or a place,” Stevens tells PEOPLE. “[Krutein's] perspective made me slow down and pay attention in a way I had not in a long time. It made me miss my grandpa, but it also made me feel thankful that I could meet someone with that kind of wisdom again.”

Part of what kept them connected, Stevens explained, was the sense of mutual understanding they found in each other.

“I think we kept talking because, in different ways, we both made each other feel seen,” she shares. “For Vern, I think my curiosity made him feel like his work still mattered after years of silence…and for me, talking to Vern gave me a kind of comfort I did not even realize I needed.”

And despite the 48-year age gap, the two discovered striking similarities in their approach to life.

“We also realized we are very similar people in a lot of ways,” Stevens reveals. “We are both extroverted, creative and people-loving people. We both love the world. We both really love living on this earth. We both care deeply about people, creativity, stories, life and connection.”

As their friendship grew, it slowly moved beyond calls and messages. The pair began spending time together in person, creating moments that underscored just how unlikely but meaningful their connection had become.

One memory, in particular, stands out to Stevens: an evening in March spent watching the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge, a subject Vern had photographed countless times throughout his career.

“I was sitting there with a man who had captured that bridge so many times over, and it felt like I was seeing it for the first time again, appreciating it in its entirety. To be with him in this moment, I was present and really processing how wild our impactful friendship had been for both of us. It has changed both of our lives in different ways.”

Through Vern, Stevens gained more than a friendship; she gained a new lens through which to view the world.

“There's a lot I've learned from Vern, but the biggest thing is how to really see the world with gratitude and appreciation. I've always appreciated being present, but he takes it to another level. He doesn't just look at something, he admires it deeply.”

For instance, whether it's a car, a street or a fleeting moment, Stevens says Krutein always takes the time to consider the story behind it, approaching everything with a deep sense of “awe and wonder.”

That shift has reshaped her daily life in subtle but powerful ways, encouraging her to slow down and find meaning in places she might have once overlooked. It has also changed how she thinks about time, aging and connection.

“This friendship has given me a different perspective. It has made me realize how short life really is. It feels like such a short trip. I blink and I'm 24, I blink again and I'll be 50,” Stevens shares. “Life moves so quickly, and so much of it is change. Change is scary. Aging can be hard and, honestly, getting old can feel ugly. But Vern is still healthy and his spirit is young.”

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For Stevens, the experience has also reinforced something simple yet often overlooked: the importance of staying open to connection.

“We live in a world that can feel really self-focused, and I think a lot of what makes life meaningful comes from human connection,” she emphasizes. “People want to feel seen. They want to feel like they matter. Sometimes we forget that we all have the power to give that feeling to someone, even in a small way.”

And in her case, that small moment of curiosity turned into a lasting friendship that continues to shape her life in ways she never could have predicted.

“I never expected [Krutein] would change my life in the way he has, both through what I've learned from him and through how much I love him now,” Stevens tells PEOPLE. “He really does feel like family to me.”

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