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Andy Foster ended up with Lisa Shelton's wedding ring by mistake when she gave him some change last week. Andy Foster shows off the thank-you note Lisa Shelton gave him after he returned the wedding ring she mistakenly handed him along with some change. 'I don't lie. I don't cheat. I don't steal,' Foster said. |
Sitting in traffic on State Route 3 last week, Lisa Shelton did what she always does. When she noticed a man holding a sign asking for help, she reached toward her car door for some change.
Coming up with nothing, she grabbed change from her wallet, handed it out the window and went on her way.
When she got back to work, she panicked.
Earlier last Wednesday, when she put lotion on her hands, she'd put all her rings in her wallet's change purse. When she went to put them back on, they were all there.
Except one.
Her wedding ring, inscribed with the words, "To the love of my life," by Robert, her husband of five years, was gone.
"I thought I'd taken all the rings out of the coins," she said. "But the wedding band wasn't there."
Shelton, who lives in Stafford County, immediately went back out to Route 3. The man was gone.
Meanwhile, Andy Foster had left his post on Route 3 to go warm up at a friend's house.
Foster, 43, has been homeless for a while, after living arrangements with a friend, then a girlfriend didn't work out. He hasn't worked in three years, since he was injured in a wreck. Then he lost a finger in a chain-saw accident.
He gets food stamps, goes to the free clinic for his medical needs. Sometimes he uses the money he's given to rent a motel room for the night; other times he bunks with friends.
He has put in job applications "everywhere," he said, "but in this economy, no one's hiring."
Back at his friend's house last week, he reached in his pocket to count his change and found the ring.
"I knew right away it wasn't a cheap ring," he said. "I was going to go back out and hope that she'd drive back by so I could give it back. I told my cousin that I had to find her."
Shelton was also looking for Foster, though she knew nothing more than that he had been wearing an Army jacket and had a beard.
A different man was standing in that spot in the Route 3 median now. He didn't know who had been there before him, but thought another man, a few lights down, might.
He didn't either, but told Shelton to keep going down Route 3, to a third panhandler.
"I jumped out of my car and ran across the road," to reach the man standing in the median, Shelton said.
That man said the bearded guy sounded like his friend Andy. Shelton left her phone number and crossed her fingers, never daring to hope he'd actually call.
"Everyone told me there was no way I'd ever see that ring again," she said. "I really didn't expect to get it back."
But around 7:30 that night, just hours after Shelton lost the ring, her phone rang.
It was Foster.
The pair arranged to meet at Giant the next day. Foster returned the ring. Shelton gave him a card with a little money in it, and a hug. Foster said he still has the thank-you card.
"I asked him if he needed a coat or food, and he said, 'No, thank you,'" Shelton said. "I was just so grateful."
Foster said he was just going to keep the ring until he found a way to give it back to its rightful owner.
"I don't lie. I don't cheat. I don't steal," Foster said. "I got some other issues I got to work out, but that's what I don't do."
Laura L. Hutchison:
Email: lhutchison@freelancestar.com
Micah Ecumenical Ministries operates a cold-weather shelter on State Route 3 in southern Stafford that's open any night the temperature drops below 32 degrees. Those seeking shelter can get a bus from a free dinner at an area church. No one is permitted to walk to the shelter because of safety considerations. Micah's Hospitality Center, which provides information and services, is at 1013 Princess Anne St.
