UPDATED: Guelph police say a lost family heirloom bracelet has been returned to its rightful owner after it went missing on Thursday.
A century-old gold bracelet that once belonged to a Guelph woman’s grandmother is missing.
Cassidy Vander Beek says her Oma, who passed away in 2015, brought it over from Holland when she immigrated to Canada in the 1950s.
“She wore it on her wrist my whole life growing up. I remember as a little girl I would hold her hand and she was wearing it,” Vander Beek said in an interview on Friday.
“Obviously it has sentimental value over everything.”
Vander Beek said she was taking the bracelet to a jeweler in downtown Guelph on Thursday at 10 a.m. but when she got there, she realized her appointment was instead at 1 p.m.
In front of the store, she took a photo of the bracelet and sent it to the jeweler ahead of getting two links removed.
She thought she put the bracelet back in her bag, but it ended up on the ground without Vander Beek realizing.
“I walked for about 45 minutes to get groceries and do my thing, and then when I got home to go to the appointment, I realized it was no longer in my bag,” she explained.
Vander Beek said she then sprinted back to St. George’s Square and began to frantically retrace her steps.
She said a bank nearby happened to catch the whole incident on their security cameras. Vander Beek said the video shows her dropping the bracelet and then a woman picking it up about 10 minutes later.
The woman was holding a coffee cup featuring a logo from a local coffee shop.
Vander Beek said she then went to the coffee shop where she watched about 45 minutes of surveillance video with the manager to try and identify the woman who picked up the bracelet.
“Coincidently he found the shot and showed me the girl, and I knew the girl from high school” Vander Beek said.
Vander Beek sent the woman a message with hopes of quickly reuniting with her bracelet, but it was too late.
“She told me that she had actually set it back down in front of Quebec Street Mall,” Vander Beek explained adding that the woman didn’t want to take something that didn’t belong to her.
As of Friday afternoon, the bracelet is still missing. Vander Beek said mall security told her the woman was seen setting it back down, but the bracelet is no longer in that spot.
She is now waiting to hear back if the mall’s security cameras caught anyone picking it up.
The bracelet is described as gold with thick links, carrying a coin from The Netherlands. Vander Beek believes it was purchased in the 1920s.
She said she will be checking local pawn shops with police in case it is sold off.
But she is hoping it will be returned to her or dropped off at Guelph police headquarters without any questions asked.
“There really is no dollar value on how much it means to me,” Vander Beek said.
“I would give pretty much anything at this point to get it back in my hands. It’s the last piece I have of my Oma and she was my only grandparent.”
Guelph police say they are investigating the missing bracelet.
Anyone with information is asked to call the lead investigator at 519-824-1212.
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