
{"id":1769,"date":"2008-01-31T07:25:48","date_gmt":"2008-01-31T15:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2008\/01\/31\/a-short-tale-of-love-lost-and-found\/"},"modified":"2008-01-31T07:27:16","modified_gmt":"2008-01-31T15:27:16","slug":"a-short-tale-of-love-lost-and-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/01\/31\/a-short-tale-of-love-lost-and-found\/","title":{"rendered":"A short tale of love, lost and found"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/ringresized.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/01\/ringresized.jpg\" alt=\"Nelson and Stella Chen pose with security officer James Latta, who found Mrs. Chen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lost engagement ring in the parking lot. Photo by Kirk Ross.\" align=\"left\" height=\"121\" width=\"161\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Emily Burns<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Most children taunt each other with the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153finders, keepers; losers, weepers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when they find a toy that belongs to another child buried in the sandbox. But as they grow up, not all of them realize that finders shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always be keepers. James Latta, a security officer at Carr Mill Mall, did.<\/p>\n<p>As he was patrolling the lot in front of Fleet Feet Sports on the afternoon of Jan. 11, Latta noticed something unusual \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a diamond ring \u00e2\u20ac\u201d lying on the ground between two cars. He moved closer to the ring, studying it carefully, and then picked it up and placed in his pocket before continuing his rounds.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--> Inside, Nelson and Stella Chen were sipping tea with Bonnie Lau at Weaver Street Market. Lau and Mr. Chen were discussing the ongoing construction of Lau\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new pastry shop, Miel Bon Bons, when Mrs. Chen suddenly realized that her engagement ring was missing from her ring finger.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153All of the sudden, she got panicked, and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI have to go look for my ring,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Lau, whose new Carr Mill shop is slated to open in mid-February.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. and Mrs. Chen left the table and frantically retraced their steps to their car.<\/p>\n<p>The Chens, who have been married for 30 years, combed the parking lot, becoming more and more nervous as the minutes passed. They knew that if the ring was in the parking lot, it was likely they would never find it.<\/p>\n<p>While they were searching for the ring, Latta returned to the parking lot. He noticed the couple, and he knew when he saw them that they were looking for something important.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I approached them and asked if they lost something,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Latta, who has been a security officer at Carr Mill Mall for about eight months.<\/p>\n<p>The Chens told Latta that the diamond engagement ring Mr. Chen had given his wife more than 30 years ago was missing. Latta asked them to describe the ring before reaching in his pocket and handing Mrs. Chen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ring to Mr. Chen.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSir, take this ring and propose to her like you did 30 years ago,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Latta said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153She must have hugged me five or six times, and he shook my hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I had no idea what the value was,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Latta said of the ring, which Lau said was valued at $10,000. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I looked at it in terms of what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d want if it happened to me.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I just thought it was the right thing to do.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Emily Burns Staff Writer Most children taunt each other with the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153finders, keepers; losers, weepers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when they find a toy that belongs to another child buried in the sandbox. But as they grow up, not all of them realize that finders shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always be keepers. James Latta, a security officer at Carr Mill&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}