Woman loses wedding ring at airport, turns up in lost-and-found days later

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake City woman is thanking who she calls a perfect stranger for finding and returning her lost wedding ring at the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Valerie Cameron travels by airplane often for her work in the convention industry.

"I know when I can show up, how long it's going to take me to get in line. I don't wait at the gate very long," she said.

Cameron said she has her routine at Salt Lake City International down to a science, but she was distracted during her last work trip, which took place a few days after Thanksgiving. She was headed to Comic Con in Los Angeles.

"I had a little more time to sit and wait, and so I started fiddling," Cameron said. She said she read a book, listened to music and decided to moisturize her hands.

"I just watched this video on social media that tells you about all the grime that we get in our wedding rings from putting lotion and different things on our hands," Cameron said.

In another uncharacteristic move, she took off her wedding ring — an emerald cut cognac sapphire set in white gold — and put it on her lap.

"Then my phone rang and I picked it up. Then I heard that we could board and I stood up, and I did not put my ring back on my hand," Cameron said. She didn't realize she had left the ring at the gate until she got to L.A. She called a friend who works at the airport and filed a claim online.

"They did check; they didn't find it," she said. "'I'll let you know once we find something.'"

The newlywed hasn't had the ring long, but it's her most prized possession. It comes from her marriage to her second husband, whom she met after they had both gone through divorce.

"He proposed with the most beautiful diamond ring ever. He did so great," Cameron said. "The thing is though, it just wasn't for me."

She, her husband and her daughter designed her current ring together.

"Him and I and my daughter went to the jewelry store, and we spent two hours pulling out different bands and different stones," she said, adding that the unique ring symbolizes her getting a second chance in life.

"We're a bunch of weirdos, but we're, like, our weirdos, and I love it — and my ring represents that," Cameron said.

Almost one week later and after no updates, she had given up hope, until a text came through from her friend at the airport.

"It has been almost seven days at this airport. Somebody turned it in. She said it came in overnight, so they don't know who it was," Cameron said. "I can't thank this person."

Cameron hopes the world bands together and follows the example the unknown traveler set.

"Somebody took the time to pick it up off the floor, which I'm sure it was just under the chair that I was sitting on, and they took the time to turn it in somewhere — but they didn't have to," she said. "They could've left it there. They could've taken it for themselves. It's a pretty ring. They could have gifted it to someone else, but they didn't."

She said she's grateful for the perfect stranger who did the right thing.

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