The Class Ring

One of my guys got dispatched to a ‘shoplifter in custody’ at a local service station that had a connivance store inside.  The call usually means that a clerk has detained the shoplifter prior to police arrival.  When I arrived the officer had already cuffed and stuffed the suspect in the back of his patrol car. 

I stood by at the passenger window because it was so hot that day and the window had to be left half open so that the suspect could get some air.  While the officer gathered the necessary information to make out his report and affidavit I listened to the suspect argue with the two young women he had been with prior to his arrest. 

He was a black male about 20 years old, a nice looking kid dressed well.  The two girls were in their late teens, probably ‘keepers’.  What we refer to in law enforcement as people who can go to jail as an adult, rather than being juveniles that, after tons of paperwork usually end up being released to parents or guardians. 

It’s always better to arrest keepers.  Fast, easy, uncomplicated.  I’d rather work a homicide than do a juvenile shoplifter.  Half the paperwork trust me.

So, there I was, standing outside the cruiser window listening to this guy get read the riot act by his two homey-ettes.  The argument ended when they decided to leave him high and dry.  I checked with the case officer to make sure they were not involved and that it was okay for them to leave.

Apparently they had been waiting for him in the car while he went in for some beer and cigarettes.  According to all three, the girls were not aware that he was going to neglect the ‘pay’ part of the errand.  The girls walked home. 

His car was still in the lot and had to be impounded.  Impounding a car requires you to inventory all the contents.  That’s usually when we find the really fun stuff, like dope, weapons, and crack pipes – stuff like that. 

Nothing special showed up so it came time for our prisoner to sign his receipt for the inventory.  This required his being momentarily unhand cuffed.  I watched as he signed the paperwork and saw that he was wearing a high school ring from the school my husband and daughter had graduated from. 

I also noted that the ‘year’ on the ring was all off from how old this guy was.  I asked him if he went to that high school and he replied ‘no’, he had attended Booker High.  I asked him what year he graduated and it was not the same as the SHS ring he was wearing.  I asked to see the ring and he handed it to me.  Inside were initials of its original owner.  Not the same as his I assure you. 

I asked him where he got the ring and he said he ‘found’ it.  I asked where and he couldn’t remember.  Since the year on the ring was the same as the year my daughter graduated I called her on the phone, gave her the initials and asked her who she thought the ring might belong to.  She said it could only belong to one guy and told me his name.  It so happened that the name was a young man whose father had attended the same school and coincidentally graduated the same year as my husband. 

I called my husband and told him I thought I had found a high school ring that belonged to an old high school friend of his.  I told him the name and asked if he could look up the guy in the phone book and call him.  He called me back about 10 minutes later and said that the ring did belong to that family, but not his high school buddy, but his brother’s son.  My husband gave them my cell number and said they would be calling me shortly.

About a half hour later the call came in.  It was the father of the owner who was off at college.  The guy told me that his son had been on the football team in his senior year and that he had left the ring on the bench in the locker room during practice.  It was in the pocket of his jeans and after practice he discovered it had been stolen out of the pocket.  He gave up on ever finding the ring.  

The guy was just dumbfounded that I had found that ring and tracked them down.  It was about 2 weeks before Christmas.  I suggested they come down to the station and that I would release the ring to them and they could wrap it up and give it to him as a Christmas present.  They were so happy to get that ring back the whole family came to the station to meet me and see the ring.  I heard later that ring was the best gift that kid got in some years. 

Needless to say Mr. Shoplifter didn’t object to my seizing the ring as recovered property.  I think he was just glad he didn’t get charged with possession of stolen property.

It felt good to see a little miracle at Christmas time.