Lost locket reclaimed

Brassed off about its loss, Merle Brett is delighted to reclaim a century-old family heirloom.

Brett was on her way to a 90th birthday in Auckland earlier this year. After stopping in at Woolworths (Pukekohe South), she noticed her gold locket was missing.

“I didn’t realise it was gone until I was back home, I was so brassed off,” she says. “It has been in our family a long time and belonged to my mother-in-law. The pictures on the inside are my mother-in-law and my father-in-law and it’s a very sentimental piece of jewellery.”

The locket was handed in at the Pukekohe Police Station, but it wasn’t until recently that its rightful owner was discovered,

“Weeks went by and nothing,” Senior Sergeant Jeremy Steedman says. “We were starting to lose hope that someone would claim it, until last week when we were visited by Cameron [Brett] out of the blue.”

Brett’s son, Cameron, provided a detailed description of the precious item when collecting the locket from police.

Brett says her daughter, who lives in Nelson, had been keeping an eye on social media in the hope that it would be found.

“My daughter called me and said ‘mum, I think I’ve found it,’ – she saw the image on a Police Facebook post,” she adds.

“It’s wonderful. I’m just so grateful to the person who found it and handed it in – thank you!”

Steedman says the case is a reminder that being kind costs nothing and there are many people in the community who will do the right thing.