Detroit woman wants to return ring to couple who lost it near Michigan Central Station
For Yelitsa Jean-Charles and her boyfriend, a typical Friday evening stroll turned into a treasure hunt for a missing diamond ring — and then for its owners.
As Corktown residents, Jean-Charles says she, her boyfriend and their dog go on walks to Roosevelt Park, adjacent to the newly renovated Michigan Central Station, very frequently. In their frequency, they've become no stranger to lost-and-found items, often helping to return forgotten cell phones to their panicked owners.
But when Jean-Charles and her boyfriend walked to the park around 9:30 p.m. Friday, they came across a couple, estimated to be in their late 20s or early 30s, frantically looking for something.
They approached the couple and asked what they had lost; they said it was a ring.
Jean-Charles and boyfriend joined in on the search, hoping their dog might sniff it out and pick it up in her mouth like she does with other found treasures, but they only helped for a few minutes before bowing out.
"I didn't want to burden them, like I didn't want to stress them out. We let them continue their search and told them we hope they find it, but we didn't exchange any information, mostly because we didn't think we were going to find it," said Jean-Charles.
About 10 minutes later, as Jean-Charles and her boyfriend were headed back home, they stumbled upon the lost treasure — just in time for the worried couple to have disappeared.
"As we were leaving the station, my boyfriend looks down at the sidewalk and he sees the diamond sparkling between the cracks. And he says, 'Is that the ring?' So, we pick it up, and now we're going around the park like 'Where are they? Where are they?' And they are gone."
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Nervous to hand the ring over to the police's lost-and-found bin to have a scammer claim to be the owner, Jean-Charles gave her contact information to the Ford security guards positioned around Michigan Central Station as well as Michigan Central's social team, in case the couple came back on Saturday and told security what they'd lost.
She also took to her social media platforms to let the internet work its magic.
"I posted on all of them, X, TikTok, Threads, and I'm going to post on Instagram and Facebook, I'm just on the road for family right now. So, like, I don't even have time to do this, but I'm going to try," said Jean-Charles. "I know how stressful that can be, like if I lost a laptop, if I lost my phone, if I lost a hard drive, I would hope that people would try to return it to me at the very least."
She says no one, real or fake, has reached out to claim the ring so far, but when they do, she'll be able to confirm they're authentic because she remembers what the couple looked like on Friday night.
To the worried couple, friends or family who might recognize the ring, Jean-Charles can be reached through her social media @theyelitsa on X and TikTok and @yelitsajeancharles on Instagram, or by contacting Michigan Central Station who can notify her directly.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroiter searches for owner of ring lost by Michigan Central Station
