Strangers Work To Return Lost Wedding Ring To Libertyville Woman

LIBERTYVILLE, IL — A Libertyville-area woman is relieved after one of her most prized possessions was returned to her after losing it on a Thanksgiving run.

Lane Gillenwater was on a run with her husband, Collin, on the Des Plaines River Trail on Thanksgiving when the ring somehow came out of a special ring-holding necklace. "I've used it for many years to hold my ring and it's never been a problem," she said, according to the Daily Herald.

The diamond in the ring was cut in 1900 and belonged to her grandmother. After realizing it was missing, Lane and Collin searched for the ring for a few hours on the trail to no avail.

"I was very hopeful it was a good person who would find it and not take it to a pawnshop," she said, the Herald reported. Her worries would have been put aside if she had known the good intentions of a couple Grayslake residents.

That afternoon, Terry Van Vleet, of Grayslake, and his daughter Madison were on a six-mile run when Madison spotted the ring on the side of the trail. "It was just sitting on the side of the trail. It was sad to think someone could have lost something important to them and didn't know where," the Herald reported Madison as saying.

They took the ring home for safekeeping, and spoke the next morning with Erik Tjarksen, a 26-year veteran forest preserve ranger. He checked out the ring and found the manufacturer's name and a serial number in the band. He took the ring to Rolland's Jewelers to see if they knew who the owner was.

They didn't have any information, so they called around. Eventually, they found that the ring had been sold in Manchester, N.H., quite close to Southern New Hampshire University, where Collin worked.

That Friday morning, Collin and Lane went back to the trail to search again, but again to no avail. Lane went into work. Later that evening, Collin was shopping when he got a phone call from New Hampshire. "I thought it was my boss calling. I thought I was supposed to be at work," he said, according to the Herald. "I didn't even connect all the pieces. I said, 'Stop, this is about the ring?' I didn't believe that connection was made. It's truly wild."

Tjarksen returned the ring to the couple Saturday morning.

"It took a lot of people to kind of connect all the dots. We're just glad it turned out well," Van Fleet said.

Lane will be more careful in the future, and will keep the ring on her finger when running, the Herald reported. "I'm running with a closed fist."

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