BAYTOWN, Texas – A Baytown appliance repairman found a customer's late mother's wedding rings while fixing a broken dryer.
Keith Silvers, a repairman at Parry's Appliance Repair, said he noticed a shimmer coming from a pile of lint he'd extracted from Kathy Olive's dryer.
"As soon as I pulled the front off the dryer, I saw the first one," Silvers said. "Then after I started cleaning through the lint, I saw the second one."
Nestled inside the huge pile of lint, was a diamond engagement and wedding band that belonged to Olive's late mother.
Olive said she didn't even know the rings were missing.
She thought they'd been in safe keeping since her mother died in 2009 and couldn't explain how the rings got into the dryer in the first place.
"I could've thrown the rings in the washer without even realizing I had done it," Olive said. "It was right after my mother's funeral, so I'm sure I wasn't think totally clearly at that time."
Regardless, Olive said she's just happy those priceless family heirlooms are back where they belong.
"Someone else could've taken those rings down to the local pawn shop and hocked them," Olive said. "I would've never known what happen to them. We appreciate what Silvers did for us. He's such an honest, caring person. It means so much to me to have those rings. If I'd opened up that bag and found them gone, I would've been heartbroken."
"It was a good feeling," Silvers said of returning the rings. "It was like a rush. It made me feel good just to give it back. If I lost something like that, I'd want somebody to give it to me."
Olive said she now plans to pass her mother's rings down to her own daughter.