COLONIE — Three years ago Samantha Cleveland was at The Crossings just hanging out with a co-worker near the playground and she happened to look down at a glint in the sand caused by the sun catching a piece of metal just so.
Intrigued, she took a closer look and found a charm about the size of a dime with “Love, Elda and Jorge, 1977” etched on one side with “Libra” etched on the other along with the zodiac sign’s symbols: an Omega above a horizontal line and a scale.
On one side, there is a 14k gold stamp, which makes it worth something more than sentimental value, but it was the latter that piqued Cleveland’s interest.
“It’s not a plain old charm, it’s engraved and it means something to someone,” said the Altamont resident who works as a nurse.
She took an ad out in the lost and found section of the Times Union hoping to find the owner and didn’t get a response. The charm ended up in a drawer, out of site and mind, until a couple weeks ago when she happened across it again and decided to post it on her Facebook page to see if maybe the social media world could generate some leads on the charm’s rightful owners.
The post was shared nearly 1,000 times and a bunch of amateur Sherlock Holmes are on the case.
One person found an April death notice from a funeral home in New Jersey for an “Elda” Rodriguez who was married to a man named “Jorge” Cervera. That person let Cleveland know and she called the funeral home for more information. The funeral home people told Cleveland they would get in touch with the next of kin and relay her contact information but, so far, nobody has called or emailed.
“I thought the obit was a pretty solid lead. These are not common names. It’s not like we are looking for a Mike and Lisa and the obit had both of them,” Cleveland said. “But, we have heard nothing as of yet.”
Another person who noticed the Facebook post researched the 14K brand and found Libra charms stamped with that style of mark were sold through a catalogue published by a Texas company called Houston Jewelers. That lead is still being explored, but it does not seem as promising as the obit featuring the names “Elda” and “Jorge.”
The charm itself is not damaged, so Cleveland believes whatever hoop or chain that made it into a charm bracelet or a necklace broke and that’s how it ended up on the ground at The Crossings.
So why is Cleveland exerting the energy to find the owner?
“I love genealogy and history and mysteries and you see these stories on TV about people losing a ring or something and someone connecting with the owner 50 years later,” she said. “Who knows who these people are, or how they lost it, or if they gave it to a child or a grandchild. I want to know the story behind it, and I’d like to think if I lost something like this someone would go out of their way to help me find it.
“I’m just trying to be a good person.”
If anyone has any idea who Elda and Jorge might be, or has any information about the charm, email Cleveland at [email protected].
