Patti Smith fan reunites punk rocker with priceless clothes nearly four decades after they were stolen

Is she still dancing barefoot?

Patti Smith is spoiled for choice when it comes to wardrobe options now. A fan has presented the musician with a bag of clothes which were stolen from her nearly 40 years ago.

When did they go missing?

Back in 1979. On 11 October the punk rocker was giving a reading in support of her new memoir M Train at Illinois’ Dominican University when Noreen Bender approached her with a bag containing an assortment items that had been pilfered from her tour van.

She couldn’t live with the guilt?

Bender, 56, insisted she was not the culprit, explaining she had ended up with the garments “decades ago” through a friend of her flatmate. ”I just thought, ‘Oh my god, these are her clothes and they still have her sweat on them,’” she told the Chicago Tribune.

They must have developed quite a distinctive aroma after nearly four decades.

It is not known whether Bender ran the garments through a washing machine in that time.

Why wait all those years?

Bender feared that throwing the clothes on stage during a concert could result in items getting lost. The talk, on 11 October, presented the perfect opportunity to safely return her idols’ belongings to her.

What items has Smith been reunited with?

The bag contained the sheer blouse she wore on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1978, the Keith Richards T-shirt she was often photographed wearing, and a cloth that belonged to her late brother and road manager, Todd Smith, who died in 1994.

How did she react?

The cloth reportedly reduced Smith to tears. “Before long, half the audience was crying with her ... [Some] were asking where, how, why, but Patti just put her hands out and said she doesn't care how, she's just so grateful to have these priceless items back,” a concertgoer said. Bender described the feeling of making her “hero” happy as “the highlight of my life”.