A Good Samaritan found a missing wedding ring Friday afternoon on UC Santa Barbara’s campus — a dead-on match to one Juliette Applewhite lost earlier this month while attending her daughter’s college graduation.
An elated Applewhite confirmed her ring has been found and that the local person responsible refused to accept the $5,000 reward she offered in a Noozhawk story earlier this week.
“She’s amazing,” Applewhite said. “She’s my new best friend.”
Applewhite, a Half Moon Bay resident, lost her ring during her Santa Barbara visit, but she wasn’t quite sure where. It could’ve been the Santa Barbara vacation rental where her family stayed or in Goleta where they ate dinner on June 12.
She spoke with Noozhawk earlier this week in a last-ditch effort to find the sentimental band lined with sapphires and diamonds — the one her husband proposed to her with 30 years ago.
Since the article posted Wednesday, Applewhite said several people reached out via email to offer assistance. Some searched Craigslist listings, others cased the areas where the ring had last been seen and one person with a metal detector even offered services free of charge.
Luck struck when Applewhite got a phone call from Cara O’Callaghan, an employee at the UCSB Recreation Center who read the story and happened upon the ring in a nearby parking lot.
It looks like Applewhite’s ring was run over, but she said it’s not too worse for wear considering.
“She didn’t want the money,” Applewhite said, adding that she would do something special for O’Callaghan regardless. “She even offered to ship it.
“Shout out to Santa Barbara. I love Santa Barbara.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Gina Potthoff can be reached at gpotthoff@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.