Dunkin Donuts workers hailed for finding lost anklet

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

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Hinders, left, and Works helped a customer find a piece of missing jewelry.

PINELLAS COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- Quick thinking and some burned bagels helped a pair of Dunkin Donuts employees, who are now are being praised as heroes after they got a piece of jewelry back for a customer.

On Dec. 19, Misty Martz was at the Palm Harbor Dunkin Donuts when she accidentally dropped a gold anklet on the counter. Hours later, she returned to the store, hoping to find it.

"It meant so much to me, so much to my grandmother," Martz said. "It was hers and she passed away in September."

The anklet hadn't been turned in, and so store manager Tracey Works and employee Angie Hinders began investigating. The store has a surveillance camera on the ceiling that faces the front counter, so they rewound the tape. Soon enough, they knew what had happened to the anklet.

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"We were back there, and we were watching it and saw when he came in, and he walked right over to the counter and slid it over to the one hand," Works said. "She immediately busted out crying, and at that point I knew we had to do everything we could to try to get that bracelet back for her."

The customer who took the anklet is a regular, and the women were optimistic that he would return. Just as they expected, he came back on Monday.

"When he came in, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, that's him,'" Hinders said.

Hinders had the store manager call the sheriff's office.

"While he had the police on the phone, I was still trying to stall him," she said. "I even had to burn his bagel three times to get him to not leave before they showed up."

It turned out that the customer still had the anklet. When deputies arrived, he turned it over to them. Martz decided not to press any charges. She said she is just glad to have the jewelry back, and that she hopes the customer learned his lesson.

Now Martz has her family keepsake back, thanks to the determined employees.

"I feel like this is the greatest Christmas present," she said.