THE staff at the F Hinds jewellery shop in the Brunel Centre probably don’t regard themselves as heroic, but that’s precisely what they are.

This goes especially for the staff member who recognised a ring brought in for valuation as a precious heirloom belonging to 22-year-old Nickie Bose.

She had been given her mother’s unique engagement ring to mark her own engagement two years ago, but was horrified to discover it missing following an evening out.

She believed she’d never see the ring again, and few would blame her. The number of people who have lost such an item and had it returned, especially thanks to the kindness and alertness of strangers, is regrettably small.

Thanks to not just one but several strangers, though, what looked like being a story of aching sadness has become a future anecdote about disaster averted.

Well done to Nickie for plucking up the courage to tell her mum what had happened, to her mum for immediately alerting the police with a full description, and to the police for making sure that description was rapidly circulated among the right people. Well done, above all, to the jewellery shop staff who kept the description in mind and acted upon it.

The only people who fail to come out of this affair with any credit seem to be the couple who apparently tried to pass the ring off as their own.

Unless they somehow obtained it innocently, they should be ashamed of themselves.