“That locket has been in our family a long time,” Merle Brett said
Credit: Counties Manukau police
NEED TO KNOW
- A New Zealand mom lost a gold locket containing sentimental family photos while she was visiting a supermarket earlier this year
- Police shared a Facebook post about the found locket after it was turned in by a member of the public
- The mom’s daughter recognized the locket online weeks later, leading to a heartfelt reunion with the cherished item
A New Zealand mom has been reunited with a precious locket she lost earlier this year.
Merle Brett, of Thames, was on her way to a 90th birthday in South Auckland when she lost the gold locket she had been wearing after stopping at Woolworths, a supermarket in Pukekohe South, according to a news release from New Zealand Police.
Brett said she didn’t realize the piece of jewelry was missing until she returned home.
That’s when the mom reached out to her daughter and asked her to keep an eye on social media in case someone posted about her locket on a lost and found page.
A short time later, police said a member of the public found the locket and gave it to the Pukekohe Police Station, according to New Zealand Police.
Police then shared a post about the locket on Facebook “in the hope of tracking down the owner.”
For weeks, there was no response. “We were starting to lose hope that someone would claim it,” Senior Sergeant Jeremy Steedman said.
Eventually, Brett’s daughter saw the police station’s Facebook post and called her mom about it.
“She saw the image from the Police Facebook post and thought what are the chances two lockets were lost in the same place,” Brett said.
Last week, Brett’s son-in-law Cameron visited the Pukekohe Police Station “out of the blue” and told police that the locket belonged to his mom.
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Inside the locket, according to Brett, are pictures of her mother-in-law and father-in-law.
“That locket has been in our family a long time,” Brett said, calling the locket “a very sentimental" piece of jewelry.
Eventually, Brett was reunited with the locket. Brett said she is “so grateful to the person who found it and handed it in.”
“It’s wonderful,” said Brett, who thanked the person who gave the locket to police.
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