http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20080909-NEWS-809090381
Lost and found: Engagement ring returned
Bride's nightmare is over thanks to a little luck, a good Samaritan and a news story
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Lisa Leavis holds up her wedding ring, which was lost and then found in a parking lot in Portsmouth. Don ClarkDon
Clark/dclark@seacoastonline.
By Adam Leech
aleech@seacoastonline.com
September 09, 2008 6:00 AM
PORTSMOUTH — John Procopio got out of his car Friday and walked across the parking lot of the
Jackson Gray building to receive blood work to determine the effectiveness of recent treatment on his
prostate cancer. The Rye resident came to a sudden halt when he saw a glimmer of light from below.
"I looked down, and there was a crevice in the hot top, and I saw this little glitter. I reached down and
could see a ring that had been driven over many times," said Procopio, who is 78 years old. "I said, 'God,
that's a diamond.'"
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He put it in his pocket, got the tests done and went home, where the pocket watch collector took out his
eye loupe and inspected the ring to find it was indeed a real half-carat diamond.
When he told his wife, Jacquelyn, her jaw dropped. She had just put down the Sept. 4 edition of the
Portsmouth Herald, in which she had read about the plight of Lisa Leavis, a Hampton woman who
recently lost her engagement ring and wedding band in the Jackson Gray building parking lot.
"She said, 'I was just reading about that!'" said Procopio. "She went over to the Internet, (sent an e-mail)
and within an hour we got a call."
Exactly one week and two hours before Procopio's appointment, Leavis was walking across the same
parking lot when she heard a "ping," but dismissed it as a paper clip falling from a stack of papers she
was carrying. Later that night, she found in her clothes a broken necklace — the one that had held her
rings since they stopped fitting midway through her pregnancy with her 8-month old daughter, Adele.
Lisa and her husband, Neil, spent an hour that night scouring the parking lot before they gave up. Lisa
reported the missing rings to local police, checked pawn shops and even posted a listing about the lost
items on craigslist.org. The last listing prompted the Portsmouth Herald article, as well as a radio
interview on WERZ's "Ralph and Suzanne in the morning."
Leavis said she was shocked and overjoyed to get the e-mail at work early Friday.
"I couldn't believe it. I called immediately to make sure it was mine, and it was," she said. "Then I told all
my co-workers, because they've all been teasing me since my picture was in the paper."
John Procopio went to the Leavis home the next morning to drop off the ring and a teddy bear for baby
Adele. As it turns out, Jacquelyn Procopio knows Lisa Leavis' mother, who's a librarian in Rye. "Small
world, small town," said Leavis.
The wedding band is still missing, but Leavis said the engagement ring is particularly special because of
its unique setting. It's a little busted up now and will likely need to be melted down or remolded, but the
diamond is still in good shape, according to Procopio.
"It's a shame I didn't find the wedding band, too," said Procopio. "But she was tickled pink, and I am glad
for her."
The engagement ring is en route to the jeweler, and Leavis said she's going to keep it on her finger from
now on. And the ring will now not only be a symbol of her love with her "patient and understanding"
husband, Neil, but also of the kindness and generosity of a good Samaritan.
"I'm very grateful," said Leavis. "I would've never found it if it wasn't for the article and John."