For nearly three years, one family in the Memorial Villages area has been trying to hunt down a stolen family heirloom.
The 18-karat gold wedding ring with a European diamond and custom inscription is worth more than $34,000 but the journey it has been on has a value unmatched.
“I used it to propose to my wife in 2013,” James Amaro told KPRC 2′s Bryce Newberry.
Amaro’s wife’s family brought the ring to the United States more than 100 years ago when they immigrated from Italy, he said. It has been passed down for generations and is estimated to be 200 years old.
Her grandmother, Aurora, gave it to Amaro when it came time to pop the question.
“This is a very valuable piece of property that we have, I would say, one of the most valuable on a sentimental value,” Amaro said.
In July of 2021, contractors came to the Amaro’s Villages-area home, going room by room.
“They were walking around our house without any supervision,” Amaro said.
After they left, the Amaros realized the ring was missing and searched the house high and low. They couldn’t find it anywhere.
According to court documents, surveillance cameras inside the home captured audio of one of the contractors telling the other “Let’s steal this here.”
“It was obvious at the very beginning that the value of the ring was not the important part,” Memorial Villages Police Det. Blair Cerny said. “It was the story of the ring, you know, the sentimental value of it being in the family for 100 plus years and being passed down from generation to generation.”
He investigated the case and reviewed the video before getting a theft charge on 29-year-old Albert Sean Williamson Jr.
Williamson Jr. was arrested in August of 2021 and then released on bond, records show, but after two years, in July 2023, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case. Records show prosecutors claimed “insufficient evidence of defendant’s guilt.”
The Amaros didn’t get contacted by the DA’s office but rather found out for themselves while checking public records online.
“It was like a dagger in you because ... we felt like we had smoking gun evidence,” Amaro said.
The setback didn’t stop Det. Cerny’s investigation, determined to find the ring that the Amaros intended to pass on to their daughter.
“If I saw any ring for sale that somewhat matched that description, I would go and look at it,” Det. Cerny said.
Early this month, online records led the investigator to a Spring Branch pawn shop. He reviewed surveillance video which showed Williamson Jr. arriving at the pawn shop on Dec. 8 before pawning the ring inside for $500, according to court documents.
Det. Cerny called Amaro’s wife, telling her not to get her hopes up but asking her to come look at the ring.
“Immediately she she put it on her finger and, you know, she started crying and couldn’t believe it,” Det. Cerny said.
Her husband felt the shock too.
He’s now hanging on to the dear ring, only letting it off his wife’s finger to show KPRC 2 for this story, so it can continue on its intended journey.
“We hope that our daughter one day will wear this ring and that her daughter will wear this ring and so on, that this thing will be passed on for generations, the way grandma Aurora wanted it to be,” Amaro said.
The new evidence led to a new theft charge for Williamson Jr.
Det. Cerny arrested him on Friday, but records show he was given a personal bond, which essentially means he got out of jail without paying a penny.
Amaro called that “disappointing,” but said they are tremendously grateful to have the family heirloom back where it belongs.