PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – It was just an average day for Panama City local Haley Breitenbach.
“I had taken my daughter to a baseball game, I had been there for a while. Then I came out to Pier Park and went to several shops, went to Target,” Haley said. “I just was all around. Back at home, I fixed dinner, did laundry, and packed a suitcase.”
At some point, while doing all those things, she noticed something was missing.
“My hand was catching on the blanket and when I looked down, the stone was gone,” Haley said.
The diamond from the wedding ring she’s worn for the past 20 years was gone.
“Her reaction was enough for both of us,” Haley’s husband Charlie Breitenbach said.
“I felt somewhat bare or incomplete even though it’s a possession it kind of feels weird to say that but when it’s a part of you, then you just feel naked without it,” Haley said.
After searching the house, Charlie had an idea. He spent the next day retracing her steps and leaving his business cards at every stop.
“I went to a ballpark, Target, a few shops at Pier Park,” Charlie said. “Not a lot of hope we would find it but I knew what I needed to do for her and it was the least I could do for her.”
It wasn’t until the following week he got what Haley said was one of the best phone calls they could’ve hoped for.
“I was like they found it, they found it,” Haley said.
On the other end of the phone, a Good Samaritan working at one of the shops had a story to tell.
“She said she was vacuuming and the vacuum was stuck and it wasn’t stuck with an object so she was taking it apart. It wasn’t the diamond but as she took it apart, the diamond actually came out of vacuum at that time,” Charlie said.
Haley said she was speechless.
“She is the sweetest little thing ever and her honesty and her kindness just there aren’t enough words to express our happiness or gratitude to her,” Haley said.
She couldn’t believe someone found the diamond she’s worn for decades and still plans to wear for years to come.
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