Thanks to the kindness of strangers, an 86-year-old woman’s missing diamond was recently returned to her—after laying unnoticed in a parking lot for a month.

In December, Gloria DeMent, 86, realized the 1.50-ct. diamond from her wedding ring was missing. Earlier that day she had visited Leo Hamel Fine Jewelers in Escondido, Calif., where she sold some items to the store’s manager.

She notified Leo Hamel’s, but she assumed that the stone—passed down from her mother—was gone for good.  

But several weeks later, a man walking through the parking lot of the jewelry store noticed the diamond and brought it to Leo Hamel’s, which, in turn, contacted DeMent. 

“It is an amazing story because the diamond sat in the parking lot for around a month and a half,” Henry Chaplin, manager at Leo Hamel Jewelry, tells JCK. “The diamond fit perfectly in the ring’s setting and DeMent even described a flaw in the stone.”

DeMent was extremely grateful to everyone involved for reuniting her with her diamond. In the spirit of giving, Leo Hamel Jewelry surprised her by setting the diamond in her ring free of charge. “We were happy to return the diamond to Gloria,” Chaplin says. “It is really nice to be a part of a story like this.”

JCK