Two Grafton U.S. Postal Service employees are being recognized for aiding in the search and recovery of a Grafton woman’s diamond from her wedding ring.
On Dec. 19, the day after a heavy snowfall, Amy Hunt said she was running errands and delivered a piece of mail to the box outside of Sparkle Market on Main Street in Grafton, which had a slot instead of pull-down door.
“I stuck my hand into the slot, and when I pulled my hand out, my ring clipped the top of the mailbox, and it broke one of my prongs,” Hunt said. “My diamond was gone.”
This was the original diamond Hunt said her husband had proposed with, which prompted her to look through the snow and ice on the ground for it.
Eventually, she saw postal carrier Mike Manuk, who helped her to look for the jewelry.
“He went straight to the post office box, and I met him there,” Hunt said. “He opened it up for me, we looked inside the box through all of the mail and could not find it.”
She said Manuk contacted Larry Sadowski, the person responsible for emptying the mailbox to make sure he would be on the lookout as well.
Hunt went out of town for Christmas, and filed an insurance claim on her ring.
But, Sadowski used a high-powered flashlight Manuk provided and found the diamond outside the same mailbox, according to Hunt.
“I guess it glistened in the ice, and that’s how he found it sitting outside of the post box,” she said. “I still couldn’t believe it.”
Hunt returned to Ohio and was reunited with her diamond.
She took it to a jeweler to ensure it was the same one that had broken off the four-pronged ring.
Hunt, who owns MBR Farm animal rescue, said both men have restored her faith in humanity, especially after her work with animals and seeing how “cruel people can be.”
She said she was surprised at the generosity of the men in helping a stranger.
“He (Manuk) was so, super nice,” Hunt said. “He was delivering mail, he still had more mail to deliver and he just bypassed all of that and went to the post box.
“It wasn’t even his job.”
According to Hunt, she hasn’t met Sadowski, but knows about his efforts in searching for and finding her diamond.
“He doesn’t know me, but he still went back multiple times to look for it,” she said. “I just think they’re amazing.”
