Kimberleigh Stark never imagined that she would once again hold the diamond solitaire from her wedding ring.
On 17 January, Stark went shopping in the Melville and Auckland Park area and it wasn’t until she got home that she realised the precious stone from her 22-year-old wedding ring was missing.
“I tried not to panic and I decided not to tell my husband,” she recounted. Instead she retraced her steps to her last stop, the Spar at Melville Boulevard Shopping Centre.
She told the manager Pieter Nel what had happened, not really expecting to recover the lost diamond.
When Stark returned to the Spar on 19 January with her husband, Nel stood with a smile on his face and gestured for her to come over to him.
“He pulled out a little bank bag with the diamond in it. It was a one in a million chance that he even found it as they swept up. My husband thanked me for not telling him until it was found,” she laughed.
Nel watched diligently as workers swept up for a gleam of light from the stone. He spotted it at the stand where Stark buys her newspaper everyday and recovered it for safe-keeping.
When asked about the incident Nel humbly said it was nothing extraordinary. “I’m just a manager here, it’s nothing serious,” he said. “I’m just doing my job.”
“Piet is my hero. I never expected to get it back and he really didn’t have to return it. This is such a miracle,” beamed Stark.
