Story of the Wedding Ring Accidentally Given Away With Halloween Treats Travels Around the World and Back Again

Brooklin Yazzie’s desperate plea to get her beloved wedding ring back after she accidentally gave it away with Halloween candy Friday night has been heard around the world.

What started out as a local story covered by Phoenix ABC-TV affiliate KNXV, has been picked up by numerous other TV stations, news sites and bloggers worldwide.

Yazzie, a resident of Mesa, Ariz., had taken off her gold wedding ring and placed it in a candy jar so it wouldn’t get slimy while she carved pumpkins with her young daughters. But as Friday evening wore on and the onslaught of trick-or-treaters became more intense, she unwittingly emptied the contents of the jar into a larger bag that she used to distribute candy and goodies to the neighborhood kids.

“When I first realized what had happened, I just lost my speech. I froze,” Yazzie told KNXV. “I actually had plastic rings in [the bag] too, so it wouldn’t have felt much different.”

Yazzie normally would have been out trick-or-treating with her kids, but this year she was relegated to door-bell duty due to a foot injury and a baby on the way.

The reason why Yazzie’s story has struck a cord with viewers and readers around the world is not because of the value of the ring. She said, frankly, that it would fetch maybe $50 at a pawn shop.

Far more important is the ring’s sentimental value. To Yazzie, it’s priceless. It’s the ring her husband placed on her finger on their wedding day 10 years ago, when she was barely 20 years old. They were just starting out and had settled on a basic ring because they couldn’t afford a fancier ring at the time.

“It’s my wedding ring, you know? I mean you could replace it, but it’s not the same,” Yazzie told KNXV. “I'm just really hoping that somebody has it and just doesn’t know what to do with it. They don’t know whose it is or how to find out. You know, through the hundreds of houses they went to they don’t know which house it came from.”

Yazzie and her family have been busy posting fliers throughout their neighborhood, hoping that the little kid who has a very real piece of jewelry in his loot bag will do the right thing and return it to its rightful owner.

And with the viral nature of her story, it’s unlikely the lucky kid with the gold ring will have any doubt that the ring belongs to Yazzie.