In the midst of a lunch-hour rush on Thursday, Brette Ellis broke from making coffee and serving customers at the Parsonage Café to open a mysterious envelope.

“How? How? My ring,” she said in disbelief as she pulled out her wedding ring. The family heirloom, nearly 200 years old, had been stolen from her home in Victoria a month ago.

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“I can’t believe this,” Ellis said as tears streamed down her face. The restaurant full of regulars cheered: “Hip hip hooray!”

The ring was delivered by mail to the Times Colonist on Thursday morning with a note that read: “I believe this is the ring from the paper. Please make sure it gets back to the family. Thank you.”

Last week, this newspaper reported the desperate plea by Ellis and her husband, Aden, to have the ring returned.

It was stolen in a break-in on Jan. 6. The couple was at work that afternoon, but Brette’s mother, who was upstairs sewing, heard a commotion on the main floor.

Thieves kicked in the front door and stole a number of items, including a laptop computer, a shotgun, a rifle, $800 in cash and the ring, which had been on a bedside table.

Victoria police officers arrived moments after receiving a call from Brette’s mother.

One suspect was arrested getting out of a cab at Kings Road and Quadra Street, and two others were arrested in the 700 block of Queens Avenue. They were charged with breaking and entering and one with failing to comply with a probation order.

Some of the stolen items were recovered, but not the cash or ring. Police and the Ellises contacted pawn shops and second-hand dealers to try to find it.

The ring was given to Brette by Aden on their wedding day in September 2012.

It had been in the Ellis family for close to 200 years, passed down through the eldest sons.

The gold band is engraved with Welsh poppies. An inscription reads: “O.C. Ellis, Age 27, September 1822.” Aden had four small diamonds and a ruby set in the ring for their marriage.

Brette said Aden’s mother had worn the ring before her.

“We just want the ring back. It means so much,” she said last week. The couple offered a reward and a Facebook post asking for information was shared nearly 70,000 times.

Brette said she hoped the newspaper story would make the difference.

“People kept telling me it would come back, but I wasn’t sure,” she said.

The letter with the returned ring was not signed and made no mention of the reward or how the ring was found. There was a return address to a housing complex in James Bay but no unit number.

Brette said she wanted to thank the person who returned the ring.

“This absolutely means the world to us,” she said.

“Everybody is capable of the spectrum of good and bad. I learned that with this whole experience. Getting the ring back restores my faith in humanity.”

Then she called her husband and asked him: “Guess what’s back on my finger?”

spetrescu@timescolonist.com