Insurance Adjuster Jacob Kilcrease: 'It was like finding a needle in a haystack'
That’s how a North Texas man describes what he found in the aftermath of October’s tornado in Garland.
On Wednesday, he got to return a perfect stranger’s precious memento.
Turns out you can get back what the wind blew away, just ask Chelsea Raymond.
“Ah sweet,” said an excited Raymond outside a coffee shop in Dallas. “Yep, that’s one of them! Sweet! Awesome. Thank you so much!”
Last year, the former college soccer star told NBC 5 she was desperately searching for memorabilia that had been blown away when an EF 2 tornado tore through her Garland home along Murray Drive.
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“They were on a shelf right here in the corner,” she said in the November report.
Raymond’s four Stephen F. Austin State University conference championship rings, inscribed with her name, were gone.
A neighbor found one ring in an alleyway the following day, but three others were still missing.
Until last week when State Farm Insurance adjuster Jacob Kilcrease found himself inspecting a roof a few blocks away.
“Something just kind of caught my eye. It was this silver ring shining,” he said. “It had hit the main roof and kind of rolled down onto the flat patio roof.”
The ring had not been discovered by previous crews working on and inspecting the roof.
“I looked at the name, Googled it and saw your report on it,” said Kilcrease.
NBC 5 contacted Raymond.
“I didn’t really believe it,” she said. “I was like there’s no way he found this small little ring.”
The two met in Dallas on Wednesday afternoon.
“This is my Freshman one,” she said looking at the ring. “I’m excited. Now I just need two more and I’m good.”
These North Texans brought together because of a storm happen to have one more thing in common.
“It was pretty cool because I saw the ‘SFA’ and my daughter starts at SFA in the fall so it was a little bit of a connection there,” said Kilcrease with a smile.
Raymond’s home was declared a total loss.
She is working with her insurance company to rebuild.
There are still two SFA championship rings missing for the years; 2013 and 2014.
