Ceres teen lost class ring right after graduating. How he got it back 3 decades later
When former Ceres resident Gary Curiel drove to Modesto from his Elk Grove home on Sunday to retrieve a long-lost ring, 95 percent of the reason he did so was because the women on the other end of a text-message exchange were so excited to give it back to him, he said. Now, he’s 100 percent glad he made the trip.
Gary lost his Ceres High Class of 1989 ring a week or two after graduation, either in a bathroom at Vintage Faire Mall or downtown somewhere, he said. It was a valuable ring, $200 to $300 at the time, Curiel recalled in a phone interview Monday. “We didn’t scrimp on it.”
But as years passed, “you lose something that long ago, you don’t even really think about it that much,” Gary said . “My mom’s always brought it up here and there. ... I only wondered about it when my mom brings it up, maybe twice a year, ” when she’s feeling sentimental.
It was a bit of a shock, then, to get a text over the weekend from Lorena Rodriguez-Daniel and her mother, Carmen Rodriguez. They asked if he was Gary Curiel of the Ceres High Class of ’89, and if he’d lost anything of great sentimental value long ago. He replied that he’d lost a class ring, so they asked him what it looked like.
“I described it as best as I can remember, and apparently I was at least 80 percent right,” he said.
Knowing they had the right guy, mother and daughter filled in Gary on what had happened to his ring.
City bus driver Joe Rodriguez Sr. found it in a Vintage Faire Mall bathroom and took it home to his wife, Carmen. The ring bears the intials GC, and the interior of the band is inscribed with Curiel’s signature, but Carmen could make out only “Gary,” not the surname.
She visited Ceres High a couple of times, but because it was summer, she found no one there. She tried to find a Gary Curtis or a similar name in the phone book, but no luck. Plus, Gary was a kid, so wouldn’t have had his own listing at that time.
Shortly thereafter, the Rodriguezes moved to Carmen’s home state of Washington, where they’ve lived the past three decades before returning to Modesto recently. On and off over the years, on summer trips to Modesto, Carmen made an effort to find Gary C., without luck.
Now back in Modesto, Carmen was up late one night just days ago, talking and looking through old photos with Lorena. Carmen brought out the ring, and “I became quite intrigued ... actually obsessed,” Lorena wrote in a Facebook post Sunday. “So I put my investigator hat on and started researching. With technology nowadays, I told my mom, ‘We can really find this guy!’ ”
Studying the signature, mother and daughter figured that if the last name wasn’t Curtis, it might be Curiel. Lorena found and contacted a San Jose seller of old yearbooks who happened to have one copy of the CHS 1989 book. And among the seniors was a Gary Curiel. “BINGO!!” Lorena said in her Facebook post.
She then searched Facebook for Gary Curiels. The only California connection she found was a couple of mentions of Elk Grove in one man’s posts. When they got in touch and realized this Gary was their Gary, Lorena said her and her mother’s jaws dropped and hearts soared.
Gary gave them his phone number and they made arrangements for Sunday. “He said, ‘How would you like to do this?’ and I said, ‘I really believe it’s going to mean the world to my mom to give it to you in person.’ ”
She told him they’d understand if he declined because of the coronavirus pandemic, but they could meet outside. Gary accepted, and he and his son, Ayden, drove down.
“We were nervous and we were waiting outside and we saw the car pull up,” Lorena said. “Gary and his son got out, and it was so endearing to see them kind of like straighten their clothes” and get a bouquet of flowers ready to present to Carmen. “It was just such good nervous energy between us.”
Gary and Ayden, a graduating senior at Horizon Charter School, marveled at the perfect condition of the ring. Gary said his fingers are a bit thicker than they were in his 18th year, so it doesn’t fit him anymore. But it slipped onto Ayden’s ring finger just fine.
And unlike dad, Ayden didn’t have a high school ring. “We hadn’t ordered one, they’re so expensive,” Gary said.
So now, Ayden, who like pretty much every other high school senior is missing out on prom, grad nights, a traditional graduation ceremony and so much more, at least has a cool blast from the past to mark a milestone year.
Carmen said it felt “so, so good” to get the ring back to its owner. “I made somebody happy,” she said Monday, “and I was happy, too.”
As for Gary, he said helping Carmen fulfill her longtime goal of returning the ring was about as pleasing as being on the receiving end. “You don’t take care of something for more than 30 years not hoping to somehow get it back to the person,” he said.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 12:59 PM.
