Like most people, you may have experienced loss of a valued treasure such as a watch, a ring, bracelet, or earrings or maybe a wallet or a purse. This is a story of the sorrow of loss and the happiness of return and a testimony to the honesty that we share here within the Prime family.
The day was as bright and sparkling as Waterford Crystal as I entered my depart call and left the Wal-Mart DC in Henderson, North Carolina under a cloudless sky that was as blue as a robin’s egg. I was headed to the Chex truck stop-which for me was like being hungry as a hostage and being forced fed my least favorite food-and hands down, that would have to be liver but like the hungry hostage, you do what ya gotta do and you eat it anyway.
As drivers, we often are challenged to make decisions between the lesser of two evils, but in this case, it was a “no brainer”, and I was not about to shower at Chex truck stop-so after parking my rig, I grabbed my baby wipes for a luxurious trucker’s bath behind closed curtains.
For those of you who have a Kenworth T680 or if you are familiar with this truck, then you know that there is a shelf of sorts at the base of the cabinet in the bunk area on the driver’s side-and this is where I placed my rings. One of my rings has great sentimental value as it was gifted to me from my daughter who received it from my father over twenty five years ago. The ring my father gave to my daughter Krystal is made of sterling silver and set with a square cut cobalt blue Lapis stone. The other ring was my gold Prime ring with three diamonds in it.
After my “bath”, I got dressed and closed the cabinet door and reached for my rings, but my gold Prime ring was missing. Please keep in mind, I am in the bunk area behind closed curtains and HAVE NOT left the truck. I’m thinking at this time, “no worries,” its dark in here, and it must have fell off the shelf and onto the floor. I opened the curtains and turned the lights on, no ring.
I start looking everywhere, I even look in ridiculous places like the refrigerator. After about an hour of searching, I’m thinking, “I must have lost my mind!” I was standing right there and had no more than turned my back, changed my clothes, and the black hole that leaves you with single socks at the laundry mat must have traveled through time and space and wormholed right into my truck. Enter Rod Serling-the spooky monotone voice begins; “You unlock this door with the key of imagination-beyond it is another dimension-a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind-you’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance of things and ideas-you just crossed over into-THE TWILIGHT ZONE of the LOST RING.” The creepy Theremin music spins in the background like a spider’s fine silk web.
Eventually I must give up the search and get some sleep, but sleep is elusive because the Twilight Zone music makes it really hard to sleep. Over the course of the next nine months I regularly looked for the ring. I must have looked like a tweaker or crackhead on some nights, searching under seats, cracks and in every conceivable place with my flashlight, but eventually, I had to give up on the search. One day while driving, I feel the words “I’m still here” come into my mind. Slowly I turned my head and said out loud to my truck,”well, if you got it then give it back.”
I had truly lost my mind it seemed. Occasionally, I would open a drawer or while looking for something else I would think of my ring and hope it would magically appear but it was not to be. Ten months had gone by now, and I decided I wanted a brand new truck. This truck and its evil black hole had to go, so I contacted McKenzie Hardin in leasing, and McKenzie made the arrangements so that I could get a brand new Peterbilt.
I returned to Prime, and after I cleaned out the Kenworth, I made one last sweep for the ring but it was not to be found. I checked on replacing it before I left in my new Pete and now was suffering from sticker shock as well as the loss of my ring, 1,500$ to replace plus 100$ for each diamond-it’s going to take awhile to save that much money I thought.
Swapping trucks had taken about three days and when it was all done all I could do was let out a long sigh and take my first dispatch in my new truck. I rolled out from the terminal and never looked back.
I had only been out a couple days, and I get a QC message saying that the driver on truck 940073 had found some jewelry. My first thought was no, no-are you kidding me, after searching for almost a year this guy finds my ring in the first few days? Could it be my ring? I wear quite a bit of jewelry so I checked all my necklaces and bracelets and they were accounted for so it just had to be my ring. The message said that the jewelry was turned into the tractor shop. As you may imagine I lost no time in calling. I got the good news, yes it was my ring and it was safe and sound with security, I was blown away! My next move-as my curiosity was killing me was to talk to the driver because I just had to know where he found it, so I sent the driver a message asking him to call me ASAP. It was another sleepless night but at least the Twilight Zone music wasn’t playing.
The next day the driver-Art Priest, (now there’s some irony for you right?) called me and told me the story. At the base of your bunk you have a louvered heater vent. Truck 940073 was missing the vent cover ever since I had gotten it and Art had went to the parts counter to get a new vent cover. When he removed the heater vent hose from under the bunk to replace the cover-the ring came rolling out.
What were the odds that my ring fell and bounced on the floor and made a perfect hole in one into the small black hole of the heater vent? It was the only place I had never looked, or even thought to look but I was right about the black hole-because it was a black hole that the ring fell into. I was so relieved and happy I couldn’t believe it. I thanked Art profusely for being an honest man.
I asked Art why he returned it, and he said, “I knew I had to return it; there was never a question in my mind because I knew that someone had worked hard to earn that ring.”
I am proud to be part of such a family of drivers that have such values and integrity. You can leave anything or lose anything and trust that another driver at Prime will return it. I personally have had my wallet turned into security twice over the last nine years. For those of you who read and follow my blogs you know I like to leave you with some “food for thought” as it were so here’s today’s offering. Always do the right thing, no matter the circumstance. If you find something-then it’s not yours-turn the item into security at once. The pain of loss is much greater than the pleasure of an ill gotten gain.
This is a personal shout out to an honest driver, Mr. Art Priest and to all the Prime personnel that make being at Prime like family, unless you’re talking about my family-just a joke folks, but seriously; Thank you Art for returning my ring, and before I finish up here I want to share something a dear friend of mine gave me after I told him this story. Mr. John McLaughlin-the most intelligent man I personally know and a former Prime driver quoted this to me, and then I made him send it to me because I could never have remembered it but it’s the wisdom of Robert F. Kennedy and it goes like this:
“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice-he sends forth a ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
I challenge my fellow drivers to raise the bar and look to the actions of Art Priest for inspiration.
Kman…..IN THE HOUSE….BOOM!
Written by Karl Wiggins
Karl Wiggins has been a Prime Driver since March of 2006. He hauls freight in the Refrigerated Division, and in his spare time (which is a rarity in the trucking industry), puts pen to paper and shares his life experiences and creativity through the form of writing. He also enjoys capturing the beauty of America through his camera lens. Check out his other blogs:- A Christmas Story
- Lunging Bear
- The Trucker From Down Under
- Driving Mr. Thomas
- OMG
