The ring was found among the debris of recent hurricanes in Florida. This man is trying to find his owner

CNN
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Piles of debris are scattered across hurricane-ravaged Florida communities, the remains of what were once homes. Cherished memories – photo albums, family heirlooms and tokens of love – swallowed up by floodwaters and carried for miles, are now reduced to mere fragments and discarded among the rubble.

But in one of these piles of lost memories, a small, inconspicuous velvet black box was discovered with a ring and a note on which was written: “I was 18 when my parents gave this to me.”

Now Joe Kovacs, an engineer who runs one of the landfills in Tarpon Springs, Florida, where the box was found, is looking for its owner.

“Basically, everyone threw their entire lives to the curb after the hurricane when everything flooded. There was 30 inches (of water) at my boss’s house and I saw his face and how devastating it could be for everyone,” Kovacs, a Pinellas County public works engineer, told CNN.

“A lot of people in the community have really been impacted by these two storms, and if I can give back in some small way to them, then that’s great.”

A contractor who was collecting and compacting debris with an excavator discovered the ring when he looked down and saw the box.

“It was definitely a needle in a haystack. For something like that to survive all of that when everything else was so wet and intense, it was incredible,” Kovacs said.

Although the ring was found after Hurricane Milton, Kovacs believes the treasure was originally lost in the ruins of Hurricane Helen, based on the pile of debris that formed it, which is being tracked by Pinellas County Public Works. The owner of the ring likely lives in Crystal Beach, Ozone or Palm Harbor, Kovacs said.

On Tuesday, after a contractor alerted him to the ring, Kovacs posted a photo of the box and a note on several local community Facebook pages asking if it belonged to anyone. He did not include a photo or description of the ring to ensure it was returned to its rightful owner who could accurately describe it. The inside lid of the box is engraved in gold with the image of the jewelry brand “The Danbury Mint”.

Within two days, the post received more than 700 responses, with community members sharing ideas on how Kovacs could find the rightful owner of the ring.

“The comments have been overwhelming at times, in a good way,” Kovacs said. “The entire community is intrigued and determined to find the owner.”

His small act of kindness resonated deeply with a heartbroken community seeking to rebuild and find its way forward. Along with widespread death and destruction, two major hurricanes in a short period of time left behind a huge trail of despair and frayed nerves.

Hurricane Milton killed at least 23 people in Florida, causing a deadly storm surge, torrential rains and dozens of tornadoes, adding to the misery caused less than two weeks earlier by another once-in-a-lifetime Hurricane Helen. another 20 people died. it swept across the state.

“There’s never been anything like this in this area,” Kovacs said. “Due to the enormous damage done to coastal communities, we’re going to be doing this for quite some time, right through to cleaning up and collecting (garbage) and getting things back to normal.”

Semi-trailers full of hurricane debris are still arriving, and each truck is dumping the ruins of lives. Each pile of what looks like broken, wet trash tells a new story of the family and the home it came from.

A broken chair in which someone could spend most evenings with a book. Piles of children’s toys – Barbies, remote control cars and action figures – that will never be played with again. A fanny pack containing family photos, an arcade game card and even a Social Security card, the owner of which Kovacs was able to track down.

His passion for reuniting people with their belongings after the hurricanes was inspired by someone’s act of kindness towards him years ago when he lost his wallet at a concert and the person who found it tracked him down online.

“I was so grateful for that, so it’s like I’m paying it forward and just looking out for people,” Kovacs said. “Every time I find things like this, I see what I can do.”

So far, Kovacs has yet to hear back from the person who lost the ring, but he hopes they will eventually—and when they do, he says, he’d like to return the lost treasure in person.

“That would be amazing,” Kovacs said. “Hopefully we can meet and greet just to see the excitement on their faces.”

Anyone with information about the ring can email Pinellas County officials directly at: their Facebook page.