Brianne Sinks could have easily kept the buried treasure she found while helping clean a New Jersey beach one week ago, but instead, the New Jersey high school senior took the 1.21-carat gold ring home intent on finding its rightful owners.
"I said, 'This does not belong to me and I need to put this somewhere and return it to someone. I need to go home to my mom and tell her and find out where to take it," Sinks told the Asbury Park Press.
Sinks' mother, Tina Trebino, told the newspaper they first planned to give it to the police, but then noticed identifying markings on the ring, including the name of the manufacturer, Gabriel & Co. of New York. The jeweler, she said, then tracked the ring to Bentley Diamond.
Store records indicated the ring had been purchased by Tony Silva, whose fiancée lost it on the Asbury Park beach more than two years ago, NJ.com reported.
The ring, valued by Bentley owner Daria Bagheri at $5,000 to $6,000, features a round-cut diamond in a white gold setting.
"In the 40 years we've been in business, we've never seen anything happen like this," Baghari told NJ.com.
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On Oct. 30, Silva trekked from his home in Point Pleasant to Bentley, New Jersey, to reclaim the lost ring.
Although Trebino told the Asbury Park Press that Silva and his fiancée are still engaged and planning a 2020 wedding, the Washington Post reported Friday that a woman claiming to be the fiancée in question disputed the assertion.
The woman, identified as Kimberly Robles told the Post she threw the ring into the sand during a July 2018 argument, and the couple parted ways the following December.
Sinks, 18, told the Post she knew tracking down Silva was the right thing to do.
“I just felt overwhelmingly joyful, and I was so grateful that I was able to experience this with him and be able to reunite him with the ring,” she said.
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