Woman searches for rightful owner of engagement ring found at Goodwill

READING, Pa. (WTXF) - A woman in Berks County has a mystery on her hands after she found an engagement ring at a Goodwill. She wants to return it to its rightful owner.

Lauren Smith calls herself a “picker.” She picks through yard sales and old clothes bins—finding treasures.

A month ago, she found a jewelry box at the Goodwill Outlet in Reading, Berks County. The treasure hunter had a hunch, so she lifted up the soft velvet lining.

“It came up really easily and there was this engagement thing under there and I was just like, ah," she said.

The diamond engagement ring is engraved with a date in 1921. A love story nearly a century old. In a bargain bin jackpot, the avid antiquer could easily claim finder’s keepers.

“I just want to give this family back something they thought they may have lost forever. I think if you have the opportunity to do something like that you should at least give it a shot," she said.

Smith is now looking for the ring’s rightful owners.

“I helped my parents clean out my grandparent’s house and after a while you just get so overwhelmed and you just want to get rid of things and sometimes you don’t look as closely as maybe you would under other circumstances," she explained. 

 Finding the family who this ring belongs to is like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Donations come to us and sometimes they’re donated in error," said Goodwill’s Cheryl Kulp.

The organization screens for misplaced items, but this item was tucked away. Kulp is thrilled it fell into the hands of someone hoping to return it.

“That’s just the generosity of the community in which we reside," she said.

Smith is keeping the engraving to herself, saying she'll use it to verify any potential owners who come forward.