Sarah Wall was folding laundry last Spring when she realized something was wrong.
"I happened to feel something sharp, and I looked down, and when I looked down at my ring, the entire center setting had snapped off like a twig," Wall said. "I panicked."
The diamonds from her engagement ring were gone.
"You anticipate losing a ring, or the stone coming out, but to have the entire middle setting snap off like that, my heart just sank," Wall said. "I couldn't imagine that could ever happen to a ring that was only 12 years old!"
She said she spent weeks tearing her house apart looking for the missing setting, hoping to have the ring repaired, but she never found it.
"That was what he picked out for me to ask him to marry him," Wall said. "I'm not a material person. It's just the sentimental value, and how it was supposed to be a part of our family."
To make matters worse, she discovered that when she switched insurance companies about 10 years ago, her engagement ring was not included in a policy add-on, called a rider, as she says she had asked.
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Her wedding band was covered, but the engagement ring, appraised at $11,000, was not.
"I remember specifically having the conversation ... let's make sure this gets to the new policy," Wall said. "I cannot even tell you how upset I was."
She said she called her insurance company, Horace Mann, and that her agent told her he would look into it. She claims months passed and he never followed up with her.
"He stopped responding to texts and emails and phone calls, so I just said I need to come up with a plan. I don't know where to go from here," Wall said.
She contacted NBC10 Boston Responds and we reached out to the Horace Mann Insurance Company to see if the situation could be resolved.
They told us: "We appreciated Ms. Wall bringing her concern to us. Once she filed a claim, we were able to investigate and assist her, resolving the matter."
Sarah received a check for $11,000.
"Within a week, I was notified they would be reimbursing the cost of the ring based on the appraisal," she said. "You guys are the best. I can't thank you enough."
Wall said she learned a valuable lesson from this experience: "Always check your paperwork ... and make sure everything that is supposed to be on that rider is on there, because I don't want this to happen to anyone else."
