By Kami Nguyen

Town Crier Editorial Intern

If you’ve ever wondered about the people behind the counter at your local store, you may be in for some fascinating stories. Take, for example, Justin Huey, who works in the fish department at Safeway in Los Altos.

After years of feeling as if he had “a missing piece in his life,” Huey was finally reunited with his father last year.

Huey said his mother had never mentioned anything about his biological father until he was 18 years old.

“When I first heard about him, the story was he was put in prison for drug smuggling,” Huey said. “He was going to be in there for life, so I said I’d find him when I got around to it - he wasn’t going anywhere.”

Actually, Huey’s father, Robert DeGallery, was never in prison. He lived in California selling motor homes with his girlfriend, whom he later married and who works in real estate.

Huey, meanwhile, joined the Coast Guard and settled down in Miami, where he lived for nine years.

It was not until last December that the 28-year-old decided to call an old phone number his mother had given him, hoping that it would be his father on the other end.

“The number was actually (my grandfather’s) number, and it wasn’t the right one,” Huey said. “So I ended up putting his last name into the Internet and pulled up a bunch of his family members.”

After calling relatives from around the United States, Huey had his father’s number, but he didn’t want to call until he was certain it was the correct person.

“When I finally called him, it took him a week to get back to me,” he said. “He then flew out to Miami, and we spent a week together showing him around and getting to know each other.”

Huey said when he came to the airport to meet his father for the first time, he recognized him the moment his father stepped off the plane.

“It’s amazing. We look so much alike and have so much in common,” he said. “We both have a hard time getting up in the morning, we both left our homes at an early age, and we’re both left-handed.”

A week after DeGallery’s visit, Huey received a phone call from his father, asking him to fly out to Arizona to see drag boat racing.

Huey spent the weekend with his father before returning to Miami. A couple of weeks later, he received another telephone call.

“My dad was asking, ‘What are you doing out there?’ So I packed up my things and made my way to California,” Huey said.

Taking advantage of the long drive ahead, Huey stopped by several states along the way to visit old friends and relatives.

Huey now lives with his father and stepmother in Sunnyvale and said he is glad he made the move to California.

“I’ve had the chance to meet relatives, and they’re really cool people,” he said. “They really welcomed me in. If I never made the decision to pick up and come here, I would never have known about this whole other side.”

Huey has also met his father’s brothers, who live a couple of blocks away from him.

“When I met them, I was like ‘Oh man, no matter, I am who I am’ - this is the blood I’ve got in me.”