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A man who reduced his wife to tears by accidentally selling her $23,000 wedding ring for $10 at a garage sale said his faith in humanity had been restored after it was returned.

Racquel Cloutier was distraught after her husband, Eric, told her he had sold the wooden watch box in which she had hidden the ring before going to hospital to have their fifth child. “I immediately started crying,” said Mrs. Cloutier, 31, of Laguna Niguel, California. “I just wanted the ring to be in a safe place and out of reach from my two-year-old twins.”

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The couple appeared on local television last week to ask the buyer, a middle-aged woman who had seemed hesitant before buying the box, to return it.

A dozen kilometres away, in Mission Viejo, Alyssa and Andrew Lossau were frantically searching for a set of keys. They looked inside a box that Mrs. Lossau’s mother, Chaundel Holladay, had bought at a garage sale and given them as a gift.

Inside, they discovered the three-carat diamond ring. Mrs. Lossau found an email address for Mrs Cloutier and contacted her. “It is giving me faith in people again,” said Mr. Cloutier, 38. “By the grace of God it ended up with the most honest people,” said his wife.

The Cloutiers said they would make a donation to a charity of the Lossaus’ choice. “You just can’t ask for a better ending to a story,” said Mrs. Cloutier. “I don’t think I’ll be taking it off any time soon.”

The Daily Telegraph