A man who lost a "solid gold chain" worth $25,000 on a beach in Maryland has been reunited with the "family heirloom" after it was tracked down by a stranger.
Amber Miller, the wife of the man who found the chain, shared a post about the search on Reddit under the username u/amber_maigon. The post, titled "Husband found a 17.9 oz solid gold chain today," detailed how he managed to locate the precious item on July 7.
The couple, who live in Fenwick Island in Delaware, headed to the beach in Ocean City after seeing a post on a metal detecting group on Facebook offering a reward of $5,000 for the return of the necklace, which was valued at around $25,000, according to the Reddit post.
Miller spoke to Newsweek about the extraordinary find.
"There was a post made in the Maryland Metal Detecting Facebook group saying they lost a 'family heirloom' necklace. Their son, the owner of the necklace, was boogie boarding and it got knocked off of him by a wave. Gary, my husband, saw the post about 16 hours after it was made. The [Facebook] poster confirmed it hadn't been found, so we headed to the beach," she said.
"The first hit he got was this necklace—insane."
Miller said the family was "extremely grateful," adding, "I would be too if someone found my $25K necklace in the ocean" in a caption shared with the Reddit post.
Noting that some other Redditors left comments saying that the couple "were idiots for returning it," Miller told Newsweek, "We went out there with the intention of finding the necklace to return it. That's what we did."
The couple's desire to safely return the necklace to its rightful owner—instead of holding on to it to sell it at a higher price—is not surprising because "performing random acts of kindness increases happiness in both givers and receivers," says a January 2023 study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
The study said: "From giving away a cup of hot chocolate in a park to giving away a gift in the lab, those performing a random act of kindness consistently underestimated how positive their recipients would feel, thinking their act was of less value than recipients perceived it to be."
'A Long Shot'
On the way to the Ocean City beach, Miller "kept thinking there was no way in hell" her husband was going find the necklace, according to the caption shared with the Reddit post.
"Still can't believe it. Please don't ask why someone would wear this to the beach or in the ocean, I have no idea. Baffled," the caption said.
Upon arriving at the beach, the couple noticed that there were already several people searching for the chain.
"There were about four to five other people out there with their metal detectors hunting for it. I sat down in my beach chair to crochet for a little while; I thought it was a long shot that he'd find it. Less than 10 minutes later, I see him digging something up, and there it was," Miller told Newsweek.
The poster said the owner of the necklace drove from Virginia back to Ocean City on July 8 to meet the couple at a bank. An image shared with Newsweek shows Gary holding cash in his hand while standing next to the owner wearing the necklace.
During the exchange, the owner clarified the chain's significance. "At the exchange, the owner told us it's not really an heirloom, he bought it for himself for his 30th birthday," the poster told Newsweek.
According to Miller, her husband has been doing metal detecting work for years and found various items over time. "He has found phones, watches, sunglasses, pull tabs, bottle caps, change, all kinds of stuff. Two summers ago, he dug up a beautiful gold band that I still wear every day on my thumb," she shared.
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About the writer
Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in travel and health.
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