Oof, this one hits me in my soft spot. Emma Watson took some me time over the weekend to get treatments at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Spa in Hyde Park. Like most of us would, she removed all her jewelry beforehand. She locked three rings of great sentimental value in a safe at the spa but forgot to retrieve them when she left. She realized too late, the spa was closed by the time she called and security couldn’t find them. As of yet, they are still lost. Emma posted the following plea to Facebook looking for anyone who might have information.
The full text is:
Reward for information leading to the return of rings lost Sunday 16th July at Mandarin Oriental Spa, London.
On Sunday afternoon I went for a treatment at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Spa in Hyde Park, London. Before my appointment I removed 3 silver rings from my fingers and put them in the safe inside the locker. When I left, I forgot to take my rings from the safe. When I got home I realised the rings were not on my hands and I called the spa, but at this time the spa was closed. Security checked the safe and said there was nothing in it but that the spa would be open again in the morning and they could speak to them then and see if they had them or if anyone had handed them in.
As of now they are missing. Were these just any rings I could accept this, but one of the them was a gift from my Mum. She bought it the day after I was born and wore it for 18 years, never taking it off, and then gave it to me for my 18th birthday. I wear this ring everyday, it is my most meaningful and special possession.
If anyone was at the Mandarin Oriental Spa on Sunday from 3pm onwards and saw the rings or accidentally picked them up or knows anything about them, I cannot express how much it would mean if they came back to me – no questions asked. If you have seen them or have any information please email: findthering@outlook.com
Thank you,
Emma x
Listen to the tone of her appeal, she is so desperate to have these back. She’s telling whomever has them, she’s not going to ask any questions, no charges just please, please bring them back. Could you imagine losing that ring her mother bought the day after she was born? Oh my goodness, I really feel for Emma here.
I know there are many ways to blame Emma for negligence but I can’t bring myself to blame her for anything on this. First of all, I’ve had plenty of moments where I’ve overlooked something, especially after having a particularly relaxing episode like a good nap or spa treatment. Secondly, I’ve forgotten to pack things after a hotel stay and never gotten any of them back. Never. Not even when I called only an hour after. Not even when it was a full-length coat in the closet that would be hard to miss. Not even when it was the hotel at which I worked. And you cannot replace sentimental value. I accidentally left the first pair of diamond earrings The Mister bought me in a hotel safe and they were never found either. I don’t think they were even a ½ carat but I felt so grown up when he handed them to me. I’ve never been able to bring myself to replace them, like a permanent punishment for my carelessness. Sorry, like I said, this one hit me. I want Emma to get her rings back. It would be great if she gets them all back but even if it’s just the one her mom gave her, that would be something. I’m not hopeful, though. Maybe the reward will be enough but now that these rings have been identified, they can’t stay in their original form. I hope they haven’t met with a smelter yet. If, by any miracle, one of you knows anything, that tip email again is findthering@outlook.com.
Emma is wearing two on the rings in this pic
Photo credit Facebook, Getty Images and PRPhotos
Why the hell didn’t spa management take possession of the rings once they were found in the safe? They had to belong to a guest. I hope poor Emma gets them back!!
That was my thought, too. They were in a spa safe! Are you telling me staff never checks the safes before handing over access to the next client?? So frustrating. I ache for her.
That being said, it should be fairly easy to determine who had access subsequently to the safe, no?
I’m sure they will. The management at Mandarin Oriental do not want this kind of publicity. Its a 5 star hotel. They need their wealthy clients to feel safe. There will be video footage, there will be access logs. They will find who took them.
I hope Emma gets her rings back. Sentimental value…these things are indeed ‘a price beyond rubies’.
I assume this is less a safe and more the lockers. Which wouldn’t have cameras as they’re in the dressing room. When she returned the key, anyone could have used it next. Those small rings would be easy to overlook in a locker.
I am sure she’s gutted by losing something so close to her heart, but the hotel isn’t legally responsible (it’s why there are signs saying you take responsibility for your belongings) and it would be nearly impossible for them to find out who as it could be anyone: staff or guests. Hence the public plee being her only real recourse.
I hope they do get returned to her!
Once we were at a five star hotel in Germany (four seasons). My sis has double scoliosis so she has a medical brace. We checked out and she forgot it. It took only 30 mins to notice and we called back. Typical response- oh it’s not there etc.
It was only when my dad demanded to see the security cameras that it mysteriously showed up after 5 mins. Sometimes you need to be tough to get your stuff back. Emma should hire lawyer and let him handle it. They can track it down. It’s a five star hotel in London (after all the terrorist attacks, security has been ramped up- just two days ago my brother was going up to his hotel room in London, he was chased by 3 different staff trying to confirm f he was staying there indeed.. we are Arabs so I guess the looks don’t help lol), they can and will get it back if they pulled their crap together.
I really hope Emma gets her rings back but girl needs to hire a good lawyer and pressure them to find out how and why they went missing.
I know! What is wrong with the management there? They ought to be boycotted, seriously.
Boycott to what end? So thousands of employees and their families suffer?
I hope she finds her rings, but, in the end, they are objects not human lives. She seems to understand that from the tone of her message. She’s handling it very maturely. Best of luck to her.
Exactly. My friend works at a spa and the time between clients is used to check for anything left in the safe and clean in between clients. That’s basic practice. If I leave something in the safe I expect it to be safe. Esp at a high quality place like this one.
This is a black eye on this place and what high caliber client will go here now?
Losing something she’s had her entire life is devastating. Hopefully this place has cameras and she gets them back
What I don’t understand is, why didn’t she leave them home in the first place? I *never* wear *any* jewelry to a spa. Even on a vacation (when I don’t take the “good stuff”, it goes in my wallet which is locked in the locker (with me having the key). Why would she bring it with her?
I’m not sure of the timing of this, but they actually might have. And we just haven’t heard because they’re sound asleep or haven’t shown up yet for their shift.
Although frankly, the safe is the safest place to keep things like that and a manager taking them home, while understandable, is still not safe.
Ugh, poor Emma. When I was 11, my mum gave me a pair of earrings that had belonged to my grandmother and I wore them everywhere. About a year later, I went to the beach with my aunt and took them off ever so carefully so that I wouldn’t lose them in the water – and then picked up my towel after my swim, presumably scattering them in the sand, and went home, not even thinking about them. I went back and searched for hours when I realised! I felt so guilty and sad. I sobbed about those earrings, even though it was silly of me. I hope those rings get found! She must be feeling awful.
I cried for days when lost a ring that belonged to my mother – it was one of the first gifts my dad gave her and it didn’t fit her anymore, so she passed it on to me. At some point I lost a lot of weight and it became a bit loose on my finger. I think I probably lost it in a coffee shop while washing my hands. I remember going back there the next day, and I was so upset when I couldn’t find it that I started crying in front of the bartender, lol.
I’ve had a similar accident.
I had a pair of earings that had been gifted to my mother for her baptism. I loved them so much, I thought they were the most beautiful thing ever. One day, when I was about 10, I went to the beach. I don’t know how it happened but somehow I lost one earing, while I was wearing them. I was devasted when we realized I was missing one earing. The guilt I felt was crushing. I have never worn earings to the beach since then.
It really is such a blow to lose something with sentimental value! At the time it can feel like losing a connection to the person who gifted it to you.
I lost my wedding ring just two months after my wedding. I lost a bit of weight and that day I’d been testing cars, shopping all over the place and did a bunch of tidying in my house. Couldn’t find it anywhere.
My MIL replaced it with an identical ring one size down, but it wasn’t the ring my husband put on my finger when we got married and I’m still sad about losing it.
Eff that spa. Why have a safe at all if you can’t police it? They give clients a false sense of security. Crooked employees. Gross.
I agree! What the heck is up with having safes that other people can access. What?! I don’t understand the point then. Lesson learned here. I’m never taking my rings off.
Those safes are meant to be open by certain employees – not just anyone, eg in case a client leaves without opening it, the next client can use it. Also, in case a client doesn’t remember the code or the safe is blocked. There’s is nothing unusual or wrong about that. What is wrong is that a privileged employee must have found the rings and kept them.
At my gym they checked every single individual locker at closing time. If a locker had a lock on it they would crack it, take the stuff out and keep it for a while waiting for someone to claim it. It was their policy since they also had lockers you could rent on a monthly basis and keep your stuff there (yuck). Personally, I never left my phone/wallet/house keys in the locker, only my clothes.
It really sucks that this situation happened to EW, it’s a high-end establishment. And they have the obligation to find out what happened and who did it. Money does buy certain standards and it should in this case.
I really hope she finds it. I have a ring I’ve worn for 13 years and last year I lost it for about 2 weeks. I eventually found it (somewhere so stupid) after looking in my house and all around uni. My parents gave it to me as my first ‘grown up’ birthday present because I told them I was too old for a Barbie. Losing something with sentimental value is terrible
I was given my grandmother’s high school class ring and wore it often as a teenager. One day I used the restroom and took the ring off to wash my hands, leaving it on the sink. I went back to my British Lit class and realized it about 2 minutes later. I literally ran down the hall and back into the restroom, only to discover two girls holding the ring and talking about it. They refused to give it to me and the school staff was no help in that regard, basically told me if I couldn’t prove it was mine, finders keepers… I was such a timid kid who hated rocking the boat back then. I look back now and wish I had the gumption I do now. I would have dived right onto those two snots and took my ring back. It was more than 20 years ago and I understand it was just an object, but to me it meant so much and every once in a while I get pangs of longing for that ring.
How awful!
Wow, that’s terrible that the school wouldn’t help at all! Sorry for your lost ring, those things really do stick with you.
Similar story: in middle school (6th grade, my most timid year) I lost an antique ring which I’d taken off in the locker room before gym class. I later saw a ring that looked exactly like it on a girl who was a classmate of mine. I was so timid I didn’t have the guts to ask her where she got the ring, because I didn’t want to rock the boat (as you said), and I also wasn’t 100% sure it was my ring. It wasn’t worth much–it was one of those decorative antique spoon ends that people melt down and turn into rings. It was definitely silver though, and I remember seeing another girl wear something that looked like it was jarring and annoying.
my worse story was losing a gold locket and silver cross, the gold locket was a gift from my great grandmother when I was born, and the silver cross was my confirmation cross and I wore it everywhere. I took it off at the eye doctor and forgot to make sure I had it when I left. I called them asking them to look for it, and searched my purse and clothes repeatedly, but never found it. sigh. I consoled myself by saying to myself it’s just a thing and not your memory of the person, but it still was a bummer.
The hotel should have a log book of what items they receive and who accesses the safe. it’s actually pretty suspicious that it was “lost”. hope she gets it back!
Shame on the school! And those mean girls. 🙁 Schools treat their students so unfairly sometimes.
I find it so strange that I’ve found wallets, jewelry, keys and cats and always either handed them in or reunited them with their owners yet I have lost many things, including my engagement ring, and never been reunited with them.
Some people just seriously suck.
Re all the questions about the Spa taking responsibility for the safe – over here most safes at Spas are just like small lockers. You pop a euro in it which allows you to lock it and take the key. You come back with the key to unlock it and get your euro back. Sounds like she just forgot the rings when she went to get the rest of her stuff out of it. I lost a watch this way. Loads of people could have used the same locker that day after her.
I’ve found and returned several wallets, credit/debit cards, ID’s, and cell phones. I have a 7/7 record for successfully getting them back to their owners.
What made me realize how huge of an impact this can have was when I was at a big concert (18k people) and traffic getting out was super slow so I was walking next to the car while my husband drove. I looked down and saw an ID, so I picked it up and found the guy on FB and sent a message. It turned out him and his wife had recently had a premature baby that was in the ICU and his wife had told him to go to the concert and let off some steam while she watched over the baby. He was just beside himself with having to take time to deal with the DMV, not having an ID for a while, etc. because of all the other things they were going through and his wife was pretty upset that he lost it. He was so thankful when I met up with him to give it back that he gave me a hug and a small gift.
Seriously, just the act of returning an ID can have a huge impact on someone’s life. You never know what someone is going through or what that item means to them.
I hope Emma gets her rings back!
@prettylights – You are a good person, and you are correct. Sometimes all it takes is a few minutes from the finder to make a huge impact on another’s life.
In hotels I have been to, when you take possession of the room the safe is open, waiting for you to put your own combination in. So I guess this must be employee theft?
I feel for her so much. I know that feeling of your stomach dropping when you realise you’ve misplaced something with sentimental value like that. I really hope she gets her rings back.
She cant be faulted for negligence she put it in the safe, the rings don’t ‘look’ that costly but now if its known they belong to her, they could end up on ebay.
Exactly. Neither fault at all. And they don’t look valuable. Even the tiny diamond would get next to nothing in the resale market.
So someone knew they were hers and was gonna try and offload them for some quick money, or someone didn’t know they were hers and just and just stole them because they’re arseholes.
I hope she gets them back.
The spa should come forward and help get the rings back. This particular hotel chain is very expensive, their spas are too, so I can’t really comprehend the low level of care they show. If a locker has been vacated you have to check for forgotten items in order to avoid this type of situations. Either an employee or a client attending the spa stole them.
I really hope she gets her rings back.
Room hotel, gym safes etc ARE NOT COMPLETELY SAFE, they can be opened by employees with relevant privileges by resetting using a pre-established code. Some safes can be unlocked by using a customized magnet – I’ve witnessed that myself.
I don’t trust hotel employees at all. When I am staying in a hotel I carry my wallet, passport, phone etc with me when I leave the hotel room. I go as far as putting my underwear, cosmetics, in my luggage and put a lock on it. I put in the wardrobe only jackets, blouses etc prone to wrinkling.
My best friend takes cleaning wipes with her to clean light-switches, door knobs and such in her hotel rooms. So she was in this hotel in Athenes, she cleaned said items, put the cleaning wipes in the night table drawer and left the room. When she came back, she found the cleaning wipes on the night table. Ridiculous and outrageous.
WHOA!!! Now that’s just creepy in a “you can’t hide it from us” stalker kind of way.
On a related note, I never use glasses in hotel rooms ever since I watched this news special showing hotel maids cleaning the toilet with the same stuff they clean the glassware with. Disposable for me, thankyouverymuch. Blech!!
Agree. I had some “accidents” with safes in hotels and each time an employee helped with the unlocking. Then I had to put another code myself. That made me feel more at ease at leaving my travel documents and money/cards in the safe. So far so good.
I’ve been to that spa and am shocked at this story.
There are individual safes within each locker so only the employees would be able to open them.
My husband bought me a necklace when we were dating, and it got caught in my scarf as I was taking it off, and it was gone. He replaced it, I took it off years later and accidentally vacuumed it up. I was vacuuming the corners of the room and brought the vacuum down, it went to close to the dresser I guess. it’s gone for good, and we can’t afford to replace the replacement. I won’t get over the loss 🙁
I feel for Emma.
I accidentally left a ring in the toilet at a tourist bureau in Nova Scotia. It was my grandmother’s and had opal stones, so I had taken it off while washing my hands as not to ruin the stones. Then I left it on the sink. We were halfway down the highway leaving it before I noticed, and made a u-turn at the next possible moment to go back and get it.
As I walked up from the parking lot to ask the attendant if anyone had turned it in (this being Canada, and us Canadian’s being an honest bunch), I saw a woman walking out off the building admiring her hand. She was wearing my ring! And enjoying how it looked on her! I marched up, told her assertively to give it back immediately, and she was so shocked that she did. As I was leaving the parking lot, shaking with anger at this woman’s absolute gall, she started to yell at my car: “Well aren’t you going to give me a reward for finding it?” No, no I was not. And I did not.
Wow, what a jerk. So glad you got it back!
Thank you, I’m so glad I got it back too. The panic I felt when I realized I left it is something I never want to repeat. I actually keep a little ziplock plastic baggy in my purse now in case I ever need to take any jewellery off in public again, but I try to avoid removing it at all cost. (I’m actually feeling pissed off at that woman just because I’m thinking about it again… six years later.)
@Chell: Great idea about the baggie to keep in your purse. I do the same with a small purse compartment whenever taking off any jewelry while traveling.
Even though I have found wallets 3x (I mailed back to owners to the address found inside) and cell phones 5x (all at airports – I called each owner to notify them, then I left the phones either with airport Lost & Found or TSA personnel where witnesses saw me and I asked for a written receipt), I have never had lost items returned to me, one time after calling only five minutes after driving away. It IS usually the employees who end up pocketing valuable items, so good luck ever getting it back. The only exception was one time and it was my son’s item. While traveling with him and his hockey team in Canada, he left a special hat my husband gave him inside a hotel closet. I called the hotel while on the team bus that was headed to the airport, and a very understanding gentleman said he’d call me back immediately. (I thought, “surrrre.”). He actually went straight up to the room and located the hat, then he called to say he would place it in a box and ship it to my son. I could not believe it. We returned home and the hat arrived two days later. I had my son send the man a small token of his appreciation along with a thank you note, and I told him next time he would not be so fortunate that a kind, honest person would be willing to help. Yay Canada!
I’m so glad your son got his hat back! Maybe it’s just the small part of Canada I come from but where I am if you find something that’s not yours, you always turn it in, you never just keep it. That’s why I was pretty shocked and angry when I saw the woman walking out of the building admiring her “discovery”.
I think, however, the most shocking situation I ever had to deal with when I ended up returning someone’s valuables was when I was around 12 or 13. I was at Disney with my parents and I found a baggie on the ground containing more than 200 dollars American. I picked it up, showed it to my dad, and told him I was going to go into the nearby gift shop to turn it in. There was a crowd of other tourists near us and when they saw what I was going to do you’d think I’d announced I was about to burn the American flag. They acted like I was crazy, some of them demanded I give it to them if I wasn’t going to keep it for myself. The fact that I was going to make sure whoever had dropped their money was going to get it back made me some sort of pariah in these people’s eyes.
I hadn’t even thought about keeping it. It wasn’t mine, what right did I have to it? That day was a real eye-opener. But I will keep returning anything I find because it is the right thing to do.
Thank you for also always returning things that don’t belong to you when you find them. If there would only be more people in the world who do that I think it would be a better place overall. People like you give me hope for a better future.
People can be some turds. I’ve never gotten anything back that I’ve forgotten, to the point that I leave anything sentimental at home when I travel. My husband left a jacket in a cab once, called the cab company 10 minutes later, never found. I wear two rings all the time, my wedding band and a ring from my mom. I don’t take them off for anyone. They can work around it.
I’m in tears reading everyone stories plus Emma’s! I too lost a bracelet my husband sent me from Italy when he was deployed and stopped in port there. I was in a store changing room and as soon as I walked out of the store I reliazed it was gone. Immediately my mom and I went back but it was already gone.
My 3 year old daughter left her blankey in the hotel room at Disney World. As soon as we drove out of the parking lot she was bawling, we turned and house keep was outside our room but they “couldn’t find it” or threw it away. I know it’s now jewelry but to a 3 year old it’s just a precious!
@JennDama – Arghhh, that is too bad. It makes me think that the hotel must have a policy on types of articles found. Perhaps they find so many used personal items that they’re instructed to immediately toss them in the rubbish, and the policy is different for “hard” items such as electronics or jewelry. Unfortunately for you, no one on that crew wanted to take the trouble to dig through the trash. Of course your little girl would be devastated! The “blankey” was her everything!
Gosh me too! It’s something we can all clearly relate to. I really hope she gets her ring back.
I think she would be a good match for Harry. Very classy girl and very pretty.
I’ve been in similar situations. Emma has my sympathy.
Findthering?
It has sentimental value. Even if you’ve never had an heirloom from someone you love, you could at least try to be sympathetic.
Edit: Word’s original comment said something along the lines of: “It’s just jewellery. Grow up.” Then I replied, then they edited it.
It’s amazing what hair and make-up can do. In that last photo, she looks like anyone you’d see on the subway.
I feel for her. I too have a ring that was my grandmothers and the small diamonds in it are from my grandfathers years of service tie pins from the pulp mill that he worked and he had the diamonds made into a ring for her. I wear it only on special occasions because it would send me into a downward spiral of guilt if I los it. My grandmother died when I was 11 (48 now) and loved her so much. Hope a good person turns the rings in!
I feel bad for her too, tough to lose something so sentimental, and we’ve all been absent minded and forgotten things. I hope she gets them back.
It seems like a relatively easy thing to figure out who was in there between her leaving and the following day. Hopefully someone steps up and brings them back.
So many heartbreaking lost jewelry stories. I was just recently having a conversation with friends about how many upsetting instances of lost or broken jewelry I had as a child.
The worst was a ring my mother gave me. It was the first nice piece of jewelry she ever bought for herself in the 70s well before I was born. It had her birthstone set between two cute hearts in the gold band. I was obsessed with it as a child and it was always my favourite when playing in her jewelry box. She and my father divorced when I was young and when she re-married my stepfather, she sat me down that morning and told me that she was getting a new ring so she was passing on her ring to me. I loved that ring more than I can say. She moved away with my stepfather the following year so it was such a special reminder of her for all of the time we were apart. In high school, I had to take it off for gym class once and left it in the tin the gym teachers had for all of the student jewelry/accessories. I forgot to pick it up after class and when I remembered at the end of the day, it was gone. The thought of it still breaks my heart.
I hope Emma gets her ring(s) back. Hopefully with her platform, someone will come forward or at the very least the spa will be able to track them down (I’m sure they would love to counter the bad publicity).
I’ve worked at multiple hotels and there is always a lost & found with a policy of how many days things have to stay in it before they can be taken. The shortest was 48 hours, the longest one week from checkout.
If I’m correct in understanding this was a small safe within a locker in the spa changing area. So not a safe kept behind the front desk only employees would have access to. I would think the first person to be contacted would be whomever used that locker after her. I hope whomever took them returns them to her.
I’ve encountered things like lost rings before–I’m sure many of us have. And the thing that’s always struck me, ever since I was a child, is that you can feel how very personal those items are. That they’ve been worn and loved and carried around for several years, some of them. What I can’t understand is why anyone would be cruel enough to keep something that carries such a strong personal, emotional resonance for someone else. It can never mean to you what it means to that person–can never be as valuable and special. Why in the world would you keep it instead of trying to give it back to its true owner if doing so would mean causing pain to someone else?