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Home / New Zealand

Treasured signet ring thought lost forever makes way back to ecstatic owner

By Ryan Dunlop
Ryan Dunlop is a reporter for the New Zealand Herald·NZ Herald·
24 Sep, 2018 02:43 AM2 mins to read

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Aucklander Heather Bonner lost a precious signet ring while shopping but a kind stranger found it and handed it in. Now she wants to thank the person. Photo / Supplied

Aucklander Heather Bonner lost a precious signet ring while shopping but a kind stranger found it and handed it in. Now she wants to thank the person. Photo / Supplied

Aucklander Heather Bonner found herself in hysterics after losing a precious signet ring gifted to her at her wedding by her sister just before her death.

But thanks to one honest supermarket shopper she has the ring back. Now she wants to thanks them.

It all began with a visit to her local supermarket, Pak'nSave Westgate, to do a shop.

The difference this visit, was she had lost some weight on her ring finger after falling ill so it was not firmly clamped onto her finger.

"I was digging through vegetables in the groceries and then in the car on the way home I noticed it was gone. "

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She was devastated and hysterical after finding the ring missing from her finger, she said.

"I didn't know exactly where it was. I was kicking myself so much about losing it. I got over myself and started to think straight."

The ring, given to Bonner by her late sister, bears the emblem of a female deer, and carries important meanings in Scandinavian and Scottish folklore.  Photo / Supplied
The ring, given to Bonner by her late sister, bears the emblem of a female deer, and carries important meanings in Scandinavian and Scottish folklore. Photo / Supplied

She called the store expecting the worst but was surprised to be told another shopper had found the ring among supermarket shelves and handed it in.

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Now Bonner wants to find the person who handed it in and thank them.

She wrote to the general manager of the supermarket and was advised security did not want to look through their security footage to identify the Good Samaritan who had found the ring and handed it in.

"They said to was too time-consuming.

"But then they rung me after I sent the email, saying they had checked and it was a customer. They couldn't tell me who because of the Privacy Act."

The signet ring held sentimental value to her as her sister had given it to her as a wedding gift before she died.

"My sister poured her heart out on it. When I went to collect the ring [from the supermarket] I wrote in their log book. I wanted to gift $100 do the person who found it."

The ring bore the emblem of a doe, a female deer, which was important in Scandinavian and Scottish folklore, she said.

The doe was known as the deer mother was known as the "great goddess of the winter solstice".

As the story goes, the mother deer was stronger than male reindeer and was leader of the bucks who led the sleigh of St Nicholas, or Santa Claus.

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