Her $12,000 diamond engagement ring went missing. UPS driver had it last, she said.
A Lake Norman woman’s $12,000 diamond engagement ring remains missing weeks before her wedding.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Kristy Schiano told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday.
The ring disappeared after a UPS driver showed up at her Cornelius home in early April with a package containing the ring, she said.
The driver returned to his truck with the package after walking up to her front door and around the side of her home, as if looking for someone to sign for the delivery, she said. The package was insured and required a signature, Schiano said.
Her Brinks Home Security surveillance footage shows the driver shaking the package as if trying to determine its contents, she said.
Schiano is a 49-year-old director of a technology company who has spent the past month trying to track what happened to the custom ring she and her fiancé designed. Two “twist” designs return to the center of the ring.
“The twists represent the twists of life,” she said. The return of the twists to the center of the ring symbolizes unity, “just as my fiancé and I are a partnership, are partners,” she said.
Left ring in a hotel
Her saga began out West on a business trip, she said. She was headed back to the Phoenix airport at about 4:15 one morning when she realized she left the ring in her hotel room in nearby Scottsdale, Arizona, she said.
Management quickly found the ring and used a third-party company, I Left My Stuff.com, to mail the ring to her and track its journey to her home, she said.
The UPS app, which she also used to track the shipment, informed her of the attempted April 5 package delivery, she said.
In separate messages, the UPS app advised her to check for the package at a UPS store near her home and the UPS package transfer station in Charlotte. She did so immediately, and workers at the locations said they had no such package, she said.
On April 12, UPS informed her an investigation had begun into the missing package. She heard nothing more until after she contacted WBTV, which interviewed her at her home and posted a story late Wednesday, May 11.
On Thursday, she said, she received a call from UPS Security investigator Victor Patrocino, who told her he was looking for her ring.
Patrocino didn’t return a message from the Observer left on his work cell phone Saturday night.
Replying to a message from the Observer earlier Saturday, the national UPS media office requested the tracking number of the package, Schiano’s name and address and other information, which the newspaper provided. The office had not replied again by Sunday morning.
Schiano’s fiancé proposed with the ring in August.
At least they have their custom wedding bands for the June 1 ceremony, Schiano said. Unless another twist of fate occurs, the ceremony will be ringless, she said.
