A hand-carved wooden cane belonging to a 90 year-old California veteran amazingly has found its way back to him after family members put out a plea to the community to help find the sentimental item.
Jim Pryce’s daughter, Kim Manriquez, called on the Fresno community for help, posting a message on social media hoping her fathers special maplewood walking stick would be returned.
Manriquez said she thought her dad had lost it during a trip a few weeks ago to a nearby Costco, but multiple trips back to the store didn’t result in any luck in finding it.
“An employee from Costco helped him put water in his car and my Dad left the cane in the cart, realizing a while later he went back to Costco and it was gone,” the post read.
“My Dad is 90 years old, a veteran, retired police Lt, he served the community and this beautiful cane was made by another fellow retired officer.”
Local news outlets picked up the story, interviewing Pryce in hopes of giving the search for the cane wider attention.
Images of the missing cane represented his life, not only his years of service as an Air Force Veteran, but his time as one of Fresno’s top cops before Lt. Pryce retired from the force after 35 years.
One picture showed it had several items on it including a small police badge affixed on it and his Honor Flight pin.
“They were sort of special to me because I had the police badge, the little tiny police badge below that were motorcycle wings,” Pryce told ABC 30 of the cane.
“Underneath that was an American flag, and that was to represent that I had been on the Honor Flight. Below that was a little image of an Air Force emblem.”
After the stories aired, an employee at Gibson Farm Market-on the campus of California State University Fresno-said they had found the cane at the market and contacted police, per KMPH.
In a message on Tuesday, Kim thanked everyone for their help in finding the lost precious family momento. “I want to thank everyone for the shares, comments and help regarding my dad’s cane,” Manriquez post read.
“It really warmed our hearts that there were so many people concerned and reached out.”
Despite Pryce’s days on the force being over, he is still very active in the community serving as a docent at the Veterans Memorial Museum in downtown Fresno.
