Incredible ring reunion
SHAYNE Donnelly’s hands were shaking as he walked into the Toowoomba police station to collect a piece of family history he’d lost more than two decades ago.
His father’s wedding band that he lost 24 years ago at Newtown Park had been found by an offduty police officer.
SHAYNE Donnelly has been reunited with his father’s wedding ring 24 years after he lost it racing to help at a crash scene.
Mr Donnelly had lost the ring in 1994 when he’d taken it off to play basketball at Newtown park when two cars collided at the corner.
The ring, given to him by his father, fell out of his pocket and despite hours of looking, he’d resigned himself to never seeing it again.
It was with shock, then, that he read a police brief in The Chronicle calling for the ring’s owner to come forward and collect it.
The gold band, inscribed with the writing “Jimmy love Julie 09/11/71” twigged Mr Donnelly as to the authenticity of the ring and, with shaking hands and in disbelief, he collected it yesterday.
“I just can’t believe it,” he said.
The ring was found by an off-duty traffic officer under the same tree where the crash occurred 24 years ago.
Mr Donnelly has vowed to keep it close and break his family’s curse of losing wedding bands.
He said the ring was actually a replacement band after his father lost his original ring at the tip decades ago.
And Mr Donnelly’s own wedding band is also a replacement, having lost his original ring while swimming at the coast.
He thanked the officer and police for returning the ring to him after so long.