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LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. — After selling off a $23,000 wedding ring hidden in a box, a couple is asking the buyer to return the ring.
On June 1, while his wife was in the hospital recovering from delivering the couple's fifth child, Eric Cloutier took some items from their home to sell at a community yard sale. Among the items was a watch box, in which Racquel Cloutier, 31, had hidden her expensive wedding ring.
"He didn't know that before I went to the hospital, I put my ring in that box. I wanted the ring to be in a safe place and out of reach from my two-year-old twins," Racquel told ABC News.
A blonde woman, who had debated whether or not to buy it for some time at the yard sale, purchased the supposedly empty watch box for $10.
When Racquel returned from the hospital on June 5, she went to her husband's closet, where the box was hidden, to retrieve the ring. Her husband told her that he had sold the box.
"I said, ‘You sold it? What do you mean you sold it?' I immediately started crying," she said. "I'm very, very, very upset. I'm trying to remain optimistic but I don't know anymore. There's a small chance whoever bought the box doesn't know the ring is in there."
Now, she is asking the woman who bought it to return the ring.
"I would never, ever keep the ring if I had found it," she said. "If you're honest, you're honest. Clearly, the ring was in the box by accident."
Earlier this year, a woman accidentally dropped her engagement ring into a homeless man's donation cup along with some change. The man held onto the ring, waiting for her to come back, and returned the ring when she did.
