Facebook group leads Ohio woman to lost family ring

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. -- Brittney Stover, a Kent Ohio resident, travelled to Middlebury to visit family on Easter weekend. After checkout Stover drove back home and quickly realized she had left a ring that was very special to her family in the hotel room. That ring was a dedication piece to her mother and grandmother for her wedding day, and while not very expensive, it was very near and dear to her heart.

Stover quickly turned around and tried to go back to the hotel room to grab it but a new person had already checked into the room and the cleaning staff said no one had turned in the ring. In a last hope effort Stover joined the popular 574 Nosey Neighbors group to reach out and ask if anyone comes across it to return it.

Stover says, “People took the opportunity to step up, and they really did. They started tagging employees that worked there. Those employees started putting it into their work group snap messages so all the employees were aware of it, like it just really spread more than what I thought.”

In that post, she had also announced a reward if someone found the ring. After a sleepless night Stover woke up the next morning to a message that wiped away any stresses that overcame her. “I was so sick over it, and then I woke up that morning around nine, and I had a message from the supervisor of the housekeepers and. Told me, she introduced herself, she told me who she was, and she said that they had the ring.”

After receiving that message, she called the hotel and they immediately knew who she was and reassured her the ring was safe at the hotel for her to pick up or mail. But after the rollercoaster of emotions, Stover did not want to mess with mailing it and instead had her family pick it up for her and keep it at their home until they visit or she comes back to Middlebury.

Stover tells ABC57's Sidney Moore that this situation not only shows the power of social media but the power of community. She explains, “In the Facebook group, it's easy to forget that, and a lot of people, especially on social media, can be the keyboard warriors, but there's some, there's still some good people out there. And it even made me realize that from a completely different community that I know nothing about, or even from.”