Diamond rings found in snow
Valentine’s Day has come and gone and for most, love was in the air. For Michael McKay, however, love was nestled in a snow bank on Spokane’s North Side.
“I was walking toward my lady friend who was a couple of blocks in front of me,” McKay said. “I was looking at the ground and saw an object in the snow. It was in the road, a little ways from the curb. I thought it was a piece of plastic.”
McKay kept walking but a glimmer of a possible lost love tugged at him. “I turned around, went back and picked it up. At first I thought it was nothing much, just costume jewelry so I stuck it in my pocket and thought nothing more about it.”
Later that day the two were driving to downtown Spokane and McKay told his friend about the ring. The two became intrigued with the story this ring could tell and decided to get an appraisal from a jeweler. Although a couple of diamonds were missing, the jeweler “told us this is worth a lot of money. I was taken by that.”
McKay also discovered that the ring is a size 5. “Not a typical size,” he said. “And here’s the funny thing. I thought I’d go back and look for the two missing diamonds thinking maybe they were in the snow. So I went back and walked around and found another ring,” he chuckled. “To find one ring is incredibly unusual but two, that just doesn’t happen.”
The second ring “was in really bad condition” and all the stones were missing. “And here’s another funny thing. The two rings were a block apart from each other.” McKay picked up the second ring and a day or two later held the rings up together. “They were the same size,” McKay said.
Two rings, one block apart, both size 5 – I think any investigator would surmise cupid was working overtime on this night.
Despite the value of the first ring, McKay won’t consider selling it. “Our responsibility is before our Lord,” he said gently. “To do what is right in His eyes. If we chose to do what brings honor to Him we will have lived a life worth living.”
McKay made up fliers and left them on every doorstep in the area with no response. He’s placed two ads in the paper and his friend put an ad on Craig’s List. He’s received a few calls but McKay is protective of the items that have come under his care, asking callers to send a list of details about the ring and to include a picture, either hand-drawn or photo, if possible. “I want to make a good effort and if I find the person who owns the rings and make a positive identification then I would feel really good that I found the owner.”
Recently an older couple contacted McKay. “I knew right away it wasn’t their ring and I felt pretty bad. I could tell it meant a lot to them and I imagined they had been married 50 years. I guess that’s why I want to get it back to the owner,” McKay said. “I think that’s the way society used to be for the most part and today the ethics and values seem to be going by the wayside. It’s only ethically right to find the right owner; to go the extra mile.”
For now, McKay waits for responses from his ads and periodically returns to the melting snow bank in hopes of finding another clue. “Maybe a kid got into his mom’s jewelry box or a couple doesn’t realize they’re gone,” he said. Perhaps the cosmos aligned with the mighty snowplow to deposit the rings where McKay would find them. Whatever the tale, McKay is certain of one thing, “I know there’s a great story behind these rings.”
Thankfully this finder of the rings is taking his duty seriously. He plans to place another ad and re-evaluate after 40 days. “I want to be clear that I did my best and then make a decision on where I should go.”