Needing advice - lost ring

[MmeBoulaye]

Hi everyone. I am upset about this 4 weeks on and just need to hear others' views ...

I dropped off a pair of trousers at the dry cleaners 4 weeks ago and the following day realised I had left a precious ring in one of the pockets. I'd been cleaning and took it off and placed it in there and thought "must remember to take the ring out of the pocket!". But I didn't remember! But the following day I did, and rang the dry cleaners to ask if they had found it. They hadn't and all pockets get checked before cleaning, they said. The ring was a "big birthday" present from Tiffany. It was definitely, definitely in the pocket which was a deep pocket and nothing realistically would fall out of the pocket in normal circumstances. I'd put the trousers in a bag, put bag in the car, straight to the drycleaners. Even though I have hunted, the ring couldn't have been anywhere else. So what I'm saying is that the ring was definitely, irrefutably in the pocket when I handed the trousers over to the young girl at the counter.

I collected the trousers, left my contact details and have called in twice since to give them the opportunity to hand my ring back.

I'm gutted and my husband (who bought me the ring) is gutted. But he thinks if we claim on house insurance it would push our premiums up so much it would cost us a considerable amount therefore not worth putting in a claim. Ouch!

I am so upset at myself and angry that someone is, in my mind, being so dishonest and taken advantage of their position in being able to do this and get away with it. There is of course no tangible evidence. So what do I do? Does anyone have any experience of this kind of thing? Should I put in a claim, though I need to study our insurance policy to see if I can? Would scaring the young assistant with talk of a police visit do any good even though the police would probably not be remotely interested? Thanks for any advice. I know I've been an idiot, so I don't need telling in that respect.

The issue you have is that it would be impossible to prove the ring was in the pocket - however sure you were, it could always be argued that it might have fallen out or that you were mistaken in thinking you'd left it there.

You will probably hate me for asking this, but are you sure it was in the pocket? - It's just that you forgot to take it out, so you could have forgotten you'd taken it out if that makes any sense (i.e. your memory in relation to the ring has been proved to be fallible).

At the risk of stating the obvious have you checked in the bag used to take in the dry cleaning, in the car thoroughly, where you undressed, where the trousers were left until they went in bag etc. Etc.?

There's no harm in reporting it to the police - you would probably need to do this before an insurance company would consider a pay out.

I'd also recommend visiting local pawn shops and showing them a picture of your ring. Chances are if it has been stolen someone may try to off load it ASAP. If it is in a pawn shop you can report back to the police and they will cross reference it with your original report.

In cases like this I often think that losing an item is bad enough but knowing it's probably been stolen is 100% worse.