A second-hand ski jacket came with an extra surprise for one Leicestershire buyer, a missing gold wedding ring.
Katie Howett, 35, from Melton Mowbray, said she was shocked to find the ring on her living room floor on Monday, a day after opening a parcel from online second-hand retailer Vinted.
Howett first wondered if the ring belonged to a family member or a decorator who had been in her house the week before. She then realised it could have come from the box with her Vinted order.
She checked with the sender, who confirmed the ring had been missing for more than a month. It has now been returned.
“Me and my partner had just got engaged, so to find a wedding ring in the centre of our living room just after we’d got engaged was quite odd,” she said.
“We honestly didn’t know where it had come from, and we spent a good few hours trying to figure out who’d been to the house.
“We were just sat eating dinner and I glanced over at the ski equipment I ordered and I wondered if it’d come out of the Vinted parcel as I’ve opened it.”
Howett contacted the seller in Bedfordshire, who said the ring had been lost for more than a month after it fell off as she was getting into bed.
“She just said ‘oh my gosh, I can’t believe that you have it’,” Howett said.
“She said she’d been looking for it for over a month, because obviously you don’t use your ski equipment that much.
“She’s obviously put the jacket away in a cupboard and listed it on Vinted, and she’s packaged it all up with the ring inside without knowing.”
After speaking to the owner, who wished to remain anonymous, Howett posted the ring back.
“It was really lucky that it fell out like it did,” she said.
“I was about to throw the box in the recycling, it could have stayed in the box and she would have never known and it would have been gone forever.”
Euan Steedman, UK communications lead at Vinted, thanked Howett for going “above and beyond” to return the ring.
“This heartwarming story is a testament to the kindness of our members and the strong sense of community that exists on Vinted,” he added.
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