Losing a Diamond Ring in the Atlanta Airport, and How It Showed Back Up

There’s an itty bitty detail from our Europe trip that I never told you about, and that’s that our trip was almost ruined before we were even wheels up from Atlanta. Nothing (and I mean nothing) is ever easy, right? (Oy.) What would a big vacation like this be if something didn’t go awry?

We had an incredibly fast layover in Atlanta before our flight to Amsterdam. So short, that the flight attendants on our first flight from Huntsville to Atlanta told our family to shuffle off first so that we could hustle to make our Amsterdam connection. We got to our gate with just a few minutes to spare, and Sadie shrieks that she has to go #2. OF COURSE YOU DO.

So Jamie volunteers to take her real quick, but she doesn’t go (if you have two year olds, you know that’s how they roll 90% of the time). As soon as they came out of the bathroom, we ran up to board since it was the final call for families to board early with young children.

We found our seats, marveled at what a gorgeous, new KLM plane it was, snapped the happiest family selfie, and settled in for our overnight flight (it was around 10 p.m. at this time). Byeeee USA! We were all so excited!

A couple minutes after we settled in, I looked up and see that Jamie’s in a silent panic. I’m talking losing color in his face, patting his pockets rapidly, turning his head in all directions kind of panic. He’s lost his West Point diamond class ring. He was 99% sure he’d left it on the bathroom counter when he was washing hands with Sadie.

He sprinted off the flight, but it was too late. That sucker was gone. He attempted to get off a second time to go speak with some people, but the doors were shut. Time for take off.

Talk about unsettling. Everybody knows that terrible feeling when you just cannot find something. It’s the worst, and now Jamie was forced to sit on a 7+ hour flight to do nothing but beat himself up. Ah. It was kind of terrible.

Jamie was devastated. Of all places to lose a diamond ring, this was probably the worst. Considering we were in an INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL of one of the biggest airports in the country, we had a feeling that ring was likely going international.

Jamie sulked for a while, and I sulked with him, also selfishly a bit mad that this was now going to overshadow the trip that we had so been looking forward to. I was so sad for Jamie because his class ring is everything to him. Yes, it’s material, but he wears his ring almost daily. West Point has a whole flipping weekend dedicated to these rings, for crying out loud. To grads, they are a big deal.

We made a pact on that flight that we would still enjoy our trip and both do everything in our power to find that ring one day. Maybe it would even be as easy as locating it in the lost and found in the airport on our way back home?

Wasn’t that easy. For the next 3.5 weeks, Jamie called pawn shops, made a police report, talked with friends, and even made contact with a West Point ring recovery program.

No such luck though. He finally called Balfour to see what it would cost to replace his ring, and the value had gone up 50%. Whew buddy. With so many things we’re saving for right now, the ring was not a top priority. Everybody was pretty crushed for Jamie, but he put on a happy face and declared it “just a ring and crap happens”.

Well well well! Here’s a wild story for ya. 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, I was in our bedroom folding laundry while Jamie was across the house washing the girls. All of a sudden I hear him scream my name, but it was a good scream. Someone had messaged him on Facebook saying “did u lose a ring”.

And with that, we both kind of panicked and freaked out because SHE HAD TO HAVE THE RING! He clicked her profile, and it said she lived in Atlanta. SHE HAS IT! WE KNOW IT!

Long story short, she said she found his ring in her basement and has no idea how it ended up there (I’M SORRY – WHAT?!). She brought it to a jeweler, who saw Jamie’s name inscribed inside. He suggested she find him on Facebook and contact him (thank goodness he doesn’t have a common name!)

We made all of the necessary detailed plans for her to ship the ring, but then she sent Jamie a message the next day around 10 a.m. detailing some pretty bizarre reasons why she couldn’t ship it for a few days.

We both panicked and knew we needed to get that ring fast. It wasn’t that we didn’t trust her. From our messages, she seemed very honest and genuine in wanting to get the ring back to us. The whole situation was just sketchy though (I have no other words for it!) It showed up in the most bizarre way, and we knew it might disappear just as quickly.

We have a few friends in Atlanta that Jamie considered getting in touch with to meet up with this women to get the ring, but ultimately there were a number of reasons he felt uncomfortable getting his buddies involved, so he talked with his boss, left work at noon, and sped four hours to south Atlanta.

He made plans to meet the woman at a grocery store that evening, and she and her husband were there right on time. They had such a nice chat, and Jamie thanked her profusely (and gave her a nice reward of course). She was touched, but Jamie was the happy one. He couldn’t believe that JUST LIKE THAT his ring was back!

Man, if that ring could talk. What a story it could probably tell about where it went throughout those 26 days.

By 9:15 p.m., Jamie was home and so darn happy. We both honestly thought we’ve never lay eyes on that ring again, but here it was. He insured it the very next day; Would you believe out of all of our jewelry, it was the only piece not insured? We didn’t even know that! Talk about frustrating at the time, but lesson learned!

The other lesson learned? There really are amazing people out there, and we’re glad the ultimate finder of this ring was one of them! <3

Let’s chat!

Have you ever found something after missing it for a lengthy amount of time? It’s the craziest feeling!