A hunt for a lost ring has had a heart-warming ending, with local police officers successfully reuniting the sentimental piece of jewellery with its rightful owner. What they weren’t expecting however, was how they were thanked for it.
When officers at Auburn Police Area Command (PAC) were first contacted by a local, named Si, to track down his lost ring, they thought it was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
Gifted to the 83-year-old by his late sister, the ring holds a “lot of sentimental value” and Si was desperate to get it back.
“[Si] was quite adamant that he wanted it back and he was quite distraught the fact that he didn’t have it with him,” Detective Acting Inspector Brett Harris told Parra News.
Despite the odds, the officers were able to track down the person who had found the ring and have it returned to Si.
“Originally we thought it might be a difficult task but it was a little bit of good work from our police and our Multicultural Liaison Officer that resulted in a number of inquiries which yielded the results it did,” Harris added.
“We were able to track that person down [who found the ring] and once we got the message to that person they realised there was an owner looking for it and it meant a lot to them, they were happy to return it.”
Even though he has difficulty walking, Si was so “extremely happy” to have the ring back in his hands that he made a special trip down to the station to thank the officers in person.
Thinking it was the end of that story, the officers were shocked when a few days later they received a painting that was done by Si’s daughter, to thank them for their help in finding the ring.
“I think it’s quite often that police are out there doing good work every day but it’s not very often that they get something like that as a form of thanks for the work that they were doing,” Harris said.
The Auburn PAC now plans to put the artwork up in the station for everyone to see.
“The work we do is quite thankless, something like that is a really good thing for these guys to see,” Harris added.
“Other than our core business of identifying criminals and arresting them it’s good for [the officers] to see the rewards of the work they do in the community.”
Ellie Busby is a news reporter for Western Sydney Publishing Group. A graduate of the University of Hertfordshire and Western Sydney University, she is a journalism Major. Ellie has worked with Universal Media, The Cova Project and for a range of other organisations. In 2024, Ellie was named Young Writer of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.