Reports of someone accidentally losing a finger ring
while handing out Halloween candy -- or supposing that is how their ring has been
lost -- have appeared occasionally over the last few years, and I suspect a
search of newspaper archives might reveal more cases in the past. As yet, I
haven’t come across any reports of someone believing their missing ring (or
watch) was actually stolen by a trick-or-treater
pulling it off their hand unobserved, but there is potential here for
proto-legends on this theme.
The Telegraph [Alton, IL]
13 November 1990, p. A5.
Wedding ring is still missing
after Halloween disappearance
GODFREY – What happened to Teri Clowers wedding ring
will remain a Halloween mystery.
Clowers may have accidentally given her wedding set to
an unknown trick-or-treater with a handful of candy on Oct. 30. […]
Minneapolis Star Tribune [MN]
13 November 2008
Halloween handout gone wrong
turns into gratitude
A Ramsey postal worker received a special, mysterious
delivery Thursday.
Mike Janiak, 44, wasn't optimistic about recovering
his diamond wedding band after it apparently slipped into a child's treat bag
on Halloween night. […]
On Wednesday a story about the missing ring, a 12th
anniversary gift from his wife, ran in the Star Tribune's North Extra section.
On Thursday morning, he noticed something odd: the mailbox flag was up. Janiak
was doing chores outside the family's home near Xkimo and Sundown Streets and
walked over for a look.
"I flipped it open and said, 'Wait a minute, that
looks just like my ring,'" he said. It was indeed the gold band with three
diamonds he hadn't seen for almost two weeks. "There was no note or
anything," he added. […]
WXIX-TV [Cincinnati, OH]
2 November 2009
Woman looking for wedding
ring lost during Trick-or-Treat
TERRACE PARK, OH (FOX19) - A Terrace Park woman is
hoping her wedding ring gets returned after it accidentally slipped off her
finger and into the Halloween basket of a Trick-or-Treater.
Elizabeth Olson lost her diamond anniversary ring
during Saturday night's Halloween festivities.
"I had it enlarged, and then when it got cold you
know your fingers get smaller, and I noticed that it was spinning around more
than it had been before, but I didn't realize that it would slip off,"
said Olson. "So as I was throwing candy in pillow cases and buckets, I
threw my ring too." […]
WXIX-TV [Cincinnati, OH]
6 November 2009
Wedding ring lost on
Halloween found
TERRACE
PARK, OH (FOX19) - A Terrace Park woman has found the wedding ring she lost on
Halloween night.
Elizabeth
Olson thought she'd dropped her diamond ring into a Trick-or-Treater's basket
while she was handing out candy.
But as it
turns out, the ring was in her car the whole time. She and her husband found it
after renting a metal detector to help with the search.
ARLnow.com [Arlington, VA]
1 November 2010
Thanks to Listserve, Lost
Wedding Band is Quickly Found
Two-year-old Jack Stewart came back with quite the
haul from a night of trick-or-treating with his four-year-old brother in Alcova
Heights.
In addition to candy bars and other treats, the tike,
dressed as Cookie Monster, managed to score an expensive gold wedding band. Mom
and dad found the ring while rummaging through the contents Jack’s Halloween
candy bucket.
“I immediately picked it up and knew that it had to be
someone’s wedding ring and knew it must have fallen off when she was putting
candy into Cookie Monster’s pumpkin bucket,” says mom Michaela Sims. “Knowing
how awful it feels to lose something that important, I put the ring in a safe
place and went to the computer to post something about it on the Alcova Heights
neighborhood listserve.”
But when she looked on the listserve, there was
already a message from the woman who lost the ring. So Michaela responded that
she had it and left her email address. Elapsed time between messages: about an
hour and a half.
Now, the ring is back where it belongs.
“I sent my address to her and she has just now brought
it back to me,” said Carolyn Mauck, for whom the ring has held extra
sentimental value since her husband passed away last year. […]
WKMG-TV [Orlando, FL]
6 November 2013
Woman finds ring while going
through her son's candy
MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. - A Merritt Island woman found
quite the treat while going through her son's Halloween candy last week.
Jacqui Ricci told Local 6 she was shocked when she
found a women's gold ring with gemstones among her son's chocolate bars and
other candy. […]
WTOL-TV [Toledo, OH]
4 November 2013
Lost wedding ring returned
On Monday, a woman posted to Facebook that she had
found a man's wedding ring in her kids' Halloween candy.
The woman, Cortney Fontaine, was trying to find the
owner so she could return the ring to him.
"We got home from trick-or-treating and dumped
the bag out to check the candy, started pushing some to the side and found a
ring," she said. "At first, I didn't know what to do. Then, I was
like, ‘I have to do the right thing.'…A lot of people wouldn't nowadays."
So she took to the WTOL page on Facebook. Her post was
shared more than 1,600 times. And it worked.
Toledoan Mark Gilhouse claimed the ring and it was
returned to him Monday night. […]
KNXV-TV
[Phoenix, AZ]
1
November 2014
Mesa woman loses wedding ring handing out
candy
MESA, AZ
- A woman in Mesa is desperate to find her wedding ring after she says she
accidentally gave it away with the Halloween candy Friday night.
“When I
first realized what had happened, I just lost my speech, I froze,” said wife
and mother Brooklin Yazzie.
The ring
didn’t slip off her finger. She had placed it in a candy jar while helping her
daughters carve pumpkins, and when the night became hectic she absentmindedly
dumped the contents of the jar into the candy bag. […]
Chicago
Tribune
6
November 2014
Trick-or-treaters return wedding ring found
in Halloween candy
Halloween
spirits may have been at play when an unusual set of circumstances and the act
of some good Samaritans brought a lost wedding ring back to its owner. […]
"I'd
been giving out handfuls of candy," said Jennifer Vasek. "I knew my
ring was a little loose, but not to the extent that it might fall off."
Nevertheless,
while preparing to take a shower that evening, Vasek discovered that the
diamond-inlaid band of her two-piece wedding ring was gone. […]
WCVB-TV [Boston]
1 November 2014
Wedding rings falls into
trick-or-treater's bag, Readville man says
BOSTON —His wedding ring fell into a bag of Halloween
candy as trick-or-treaters came to his home Friday night, a man who lives in
the Readville section of Boston told WCVB.com.
"While giving out candy tonight my wedding ring
slipped off into someone's bag," said Robert Rand. […]
WCVB-TV [Boston]
17 November 2015
Prayers answered: Lost wedding
ring found on angel's toe
BOSTON —He’s been praying and praying someone would
find his lost wedding ring that he thought fell off as he was handing out
Halloween candy last year. It looks like his prayers have been answered…
literally.
Robert Rand told WCVB.com last year that his wedding
ring fell into a bag of Halloween candy as trick-or-treaters came to his home
in the Readville section of Boston. […]
This Halloween, Rand said he put a sign in front of
his home, hoping to jog memories about the ring. But as it turns out, he didn’t
need it.
“I am handicapped, and as I was attempting to rake my
leaves -- there it was on the toe of my garden angel! I have (been) praying to
find it for so long, and there it was with my angel all this time,” Rand said.
Rand said the statue was right near his front door. […]
The Plain Dealer [Cleveland, OH]
3 November 2014
Missing ring in Middleburg
Heights may have fallen into bag of trick-or-treats
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio – Some trick-or-treater along
Squirrel Run Drive in Middleburg Heights may have gotten more than candy at
Halloween.
A pair of golden rings with diamonds may have fallen
into a bag of treats as Rose Zatezalo was handing out chocolates last Friday. […]
The Plain Dealer [Cleveland, OH]
4 November 2016
Missing rings belonging to
Middleburg Heights woman spookily reappear on Halloween (photos)
MIDDLEBURG HEIGHTS, Ohio — If you believe in spirits,
you might think a witch's hat cast a spell that lasted for three Halloweens.
Rose Zatezalo's beloved linked rings of diamonds and
gold, a gift from her father on his deathbed, went missing in 2014. They
suddenly turned up this past Halloween in, of all things, a witch's hat. […]
This Halloween, Zatezalo donned her witch's costume
and one of her hats again. Then she jumped out of the dark at a friend and
cried "Boo!" Something tumbled from inside the hat and down the back
of her robe. She fished out the rings. She can only guess they'd slipped into a
slit or fold of the hat two years ago while she was taking it off or setting it
down. […]
Winnipeg Free Press [Manitoba]
2 November 2015
Man fears wedding ring
slipped into child's Halloween bag
Lorne Wolfe lost 30 pounds earlier this year. Now he's
lost his wedding ring.
Wolfe is still married. But he believes his wedding
ring slipped off his finger into a child's bag, as he was handing out candy on
Halloween night.
Lorne and Barb Wolfe in Island Lakes have matching
wedding rings, and the ring has great value to them.
"What happened is I lost 30 pounds at the
beginning of the year. My ring got really loose so I took it off. But in summer
my hand swelled from the heat and I put it back on again," said Wolfe, who
has been married to Barb for 31 years.
"Now with it getting colder, it got loose again.
I almost lost it once throwing something in the garbage but I felt it slipping
off." […]
The Times-Picayune [New Orleans, LA]
2 November 2015
That's no Snickers! Slidell
woman fears wedding ring wound up in Halloween candy bag
A trick or treater in Slidell might have gotten
something worth a lot more than a Snickers or Kit Kat. Slidell police said
Monday (Nov. 2) that a woman who lives in the Breckenridge Subdivision called
to report that she lost her wedding ring while passing out candy for Halloween.
[…]
WGNO-TV [Metairie, LA]
3 November 2015
Missing wedding ring has been
found!
SLIDELL, La. (WGNO) – It’s a happy ending to a missing
ring story. The Slidell Police Department asked parents Monday to check their
kids’ Halloween candy for a wedding ring.
An 86-year-old woman lost her ring Halloween weekend.
She believed it probably went into someone’s trick-or-treat bag.
After a search of her property today, the ring had
been found in the woman’s front lawn.
WLNS-TV [Lansing, MI]
1 November 2016
Woman loses late husband’s
wedding ring, asking for public’s help to find it
We want you to check your Halloween candy bucket, but
not because of a recall, rather because of a missing wedding ring.
Many say a wedding ring is the greatest symbol of
love. A symbol that’s extra special to Catherine Tucker.
“It was my husband’s wedding ring and he died three
years ago on the 26th of October, so we just had his three year anniversary,”
Tucker said.
She said she wears his ring every day.
“This is one of the few meaningful things that I still
have of his,” she said.
She lives on the corner of Walnut and Sycamore, in the
Tree Streets neighborhood in Holt and Monday night, while handing out candy on
Halloween, she believes it fell off into someone’s bag. […]
WLNS-TV [Lansing, MI]
3 November 2016
LOVE STORY: Late husband’s
lost wedding ring found
HOLT, Mich (WLNS) – Remember the woman we introduced
you to who lost her late husband’s wedding ring while handing out treats
Halloween night?
Catherine Tucker was heartbroken. […]
When 6 News offered the services of Tom Shively, a
professional with a metal detector who owns “Treasure Tom’s”, Catherine was
hopeful.
This afternoon her hopes were realized.
The ring was located outside her front door buried
under about an inch of dirt. […]
CBC News [Canada]
2 November 2016
Montreal woman fears diamond
slipped into Halloween trick-or-treat bag
A Montreal woman believes the diamond from her
engagement ring given to her by her late husband of 44 years may have fallen
into a trick-or-treater's candy bag on Halloween night.
"Oh my heart sank. The ring is really dear to me,"
Norma Williams-Forlini told CBC News. […]
WPBF-TV [West Palm Beach, FL]
4 November 2016
Mother finds owner of ring
found in daughter's Halloween candy
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A woman who found a ring in
her daughter’s Halloween candy bag has found the owner of the ring.
Julie McManus contacted WPBF’s Terri Parker to let her
know that she found the owner.
McManus said the woman who lost the ring, Margaret
Kaywell, got the ring on vacation in the Dominican Republic last summer. […]
WXIX-TV [Cincinnati, OH]
1 November 2017
Woman loses wedding ring
while handing out candy on Halloween
DAYTON, KY (FOX19) - Halloween could prove to be
extremely for a local family after a mother thinks a trick-or-treater may have
accidentally walked away with her wedding ring.
"We was handing out candy and I didn't have my
ring on my ring finger because it swelled up," said Jamie Stieby. "I
couldn't get it on and I had it on my index finger and I think it's in one of
the kids bags." […]
Sunshine Coast Daily [Australia]
4 November 2017
Fright night for Coast mum as
wedding ring goes missing
INNOCENT, cheeky and little bit hilarious; a Coast
toddler has learnt a very important lesson after almost losing his dad's
wedding and engagement rings over Halloween.
Mountain Creek mum Hannah Ellmer was blissfully
unaware of the drama that was about to unfold in her household the day before.
On Monday, her husband Kingsley had boxing class and
injured his finger.
The next day it swelled up and he was unable to wear
his rings - but when he went to check where he left them, they were nowhere to
be seen.
Before going to work the pair searched the house, and
upon returning home from trick-treating that night they continued the search.
Mrs Ellmer said her husband was confused and said it
was like someone had walked into the house and just took the rings, nothing
else.
On Wednesday, the pair were sitting at breakfast with
their five-year-old son, Marley, and decided to ask him if he had seen the
rings.
"Yes," was his response.
He told his parents he was playing with the rings on
Monday morning.
"In fact, he got up from the breakfast bar and
mimicked his exact actions on the day," Mrs Ellmer said.
"He said he picked them up while sitting at the
bar - and began to balance them on the bowls of lollies we had put out - ready
for Halloween."
Mrs Ellmer had poured that bowl of lollies into a box
- not seeing the rings - which she placed outside her house on Halloween for
trick-or-treaters to dip into[.]
Realising what happened, she posted to Facebook asking
if anyone's children had brought home some shiny new rings from
trick-or-treating.
Within five hours of posting the rings were returned
by a young boy who lived down the street.
"He told us he thought they were just toy rings -
like part of a Halloween costume," Ms Ellmer said.
"He probably got home after trick or treating and
went through his bag and showed his parents - and they might have seen the post
on Facebook - we aren't really sure.” […]
US News & World Report
12 November 2017
Police Search for Wedding
Ring Lost in Halloween Candy Bag
SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont
trick-or-treater may have picked up more than candy on Halloween this year.
Police say a woman who lives in South Burlington
called them after she says she accidentally dropped her yellow gold and diamond
eternity wedding band into a trick-or-treater's bag. […]
Daily Chronicle [DeKalb, IL]
1 November 2019
Cortland woman seeks help for
wedding ring lost on Halloween
CORTLAND – One day after a Halloween candy crowd
swarmed her house in search of sweets, Patricia Walker said she's heartbroken
to learn her wedding ring is now missing. […]
"I just want my ring back," she said.
"That's the important thing to me. If some kid finds it in their bag, I
just hope they do the right thing."
KTXL-TV [Sacramento, CA]
1 November 2019
Woman loses her mother’s
wedding ring while passing out Halloween candy in East Sacramento
EAST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) -- Brynie Voiles said
she had fun on Halloween passing out chips and candy to hundreds of kids in
East Sacramento but when she woke up the next morning her ring finger felt a
little lighter.
“I happened to look at my hands and there it was,
gone,” Voiles told FOX40.
Voiles spent Halloween with friends at a house on 39th
Street and Folsom Boulevard. She told FOX40 over a span of nearly five hours,
they gave out more than a thousand bags of chips and who knows how much candy.
“We had buckets and barrels of stuff and just as fast
as we could because the lines were getting bigger,” Voiles recalled.
During the rush, Voiles believes the cold weather
caused her fingers to shrink just enough that as she put her hand in a kid’s
candy bag, the ring on her finger did not come back out. […]
KGTV [San Diego, CA]
4 November 2019
Trick-or-treater makes
startling discovery in candy bucket
EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) - A young trick-or-treater
sorting through her candy made a stunning discovery.
"They were excited. Loved Halloween and
candy," said Jean Bilbrey.
As with so many other families, Halloween night for
the Bilbrey's three children - ages 11,9 and 4 - was a blur of costumes, front
doors and a steady flow of treats. Their family started around Falmouth Drive
and Virgina Court and walked for several hours, stopping by 30 to 50 homes. In
all, they filled about six buckets worth. This past weekend, the kids went
about the task of sorting the candy.
"My middle daughter, who is nine, said 'Mom, Mom,
I found something in my candy' and brought me a ring," said Bilbrey.
It was a woman's ring, possibly a precious one. […]
Fort Worth Star-Telegram [TX]
5 November 2019
Woman lost wedding ring
doling out Halloween treats, Texas police say
A Texas woman believes she lost her wedding ring while
giving out candy to trick-or-treaters during Halloween.
Now, the Granbury Police Department is asking for the
return of the ring if it is found. Police say the woman told them she believes
her ring is in the Water’s Edge area.
The owner is offering a $1,000 reward for the return
of her ring. If the ring is found, police are asking the person to arrange to
deliver the ring safely to police.
WBBM-TV [Chicago]
2 November 2020
Wedding Ring Founds In Halloween Candy; ‘We Don’t Know
How Long It Had Been Sitting In Candy Given To This Kid’
CHICAGO (CBS) — A
northwest suburban kid had quite the exciting find in his trick-or-treat bag
over the weekend. […]
“We didn’t get the
word that there were any needles, or sharps or razor blades,” said Officer Greg
Sill of the Mount Prospect Police Department.
It was something
else shiny and made of metal.
“When the
11-year-old son of the family was going through his Halloween candy and was
trading with his sibling, they came across a wedding band,” Sill said.
The family posted
to social media, hoping to track down the ring’s rightful owner. […]
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/halloween-lost-ring-1.5788257
CBC News [Canada]
3 November 2020
St. John's family trying to find owner of lost ring
found in son's Halloween bag
A family and a St.
John's [Newfoundland] elementary school are searching for the owner of a wedding
ring, who is believed to have accidently dropped the ring into a trick or
treater's bag during Halloween on Saturday.
Gillian Lahoda
told CBC News on Tuesday her kids were trick or treating in her neighbourhood
on Saturday, and upon returning home and upending their sacks of loot on the
living room floor, something peculiar seemed to have fallen out of her son's
bag.
"We noticed
something sparkling from the pile. Upon closer inspection we found a
ring," she said.
"[I] examined
it at first to make sure it wasn't a little toy thrown in there as a joke or a
gift for kids. It turned out to be a real ring, so there's some concern that
there's maybe somebody who is missing it." […]
https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/windsor-boy-searches-for-owner-of-ring-found-in-halloween-candy-1.5649333
CTV News Windsor
[ON], 2 November 2021
Windsor boy
searches for owner of ring found in Halloween candy
Windsor, Ont. - A
Windsor boy is hoping to find the owner of a ring that he found in his
Halloween candy after a night of trick-or-treating.
Mgiizi Wright, 10,
discovered the ring in his haul on Sunday while sorting through, and eating
some of his candy.
“He was rifling
through his bag to dig candy out,” said Mgiizi’s dad Chumley Wright. “I asked
him to put it away so his sisters don’t ask for some.”
“I was putting it
away one by one and I ended up finding a diamond ring,” Mgiizi told CTV News.
It was a thin ring
with a light pink gemstone surrounded by diamonds.
“I’m figuring this
might be more sentimental, or just a small gift for somebody. It’s not very
expensive,” Chumley said.
Expensive or not,
Mgiizi would like to find the owner of the ring. […]
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/eastern-ontario-trick-or-treater-returns-lost-ring-1.6137455
CTV News Ottawa [ON], 3 November 2022
Eastern Ontario trick-or-treater returns
lost ring
When Catherine Denis-Berniqué and her
daughter Piper got home from trick-or-treating in Hawkesbury, Ont. on Halloween
night, they found they had collected more than just candy.
The eight-year-old found a ring among her
collection of sweets. She initially thought it was a toy, but her parents
confirmed it was real.
The family reported the found ring to the
OPP the next day, police said in a news release on Wednesday.
The ring's owner, Diane Swanson, had also
called police in hopes that her ring had been found. Police believe that when
Swanson put the candy in Piper's bag, her ring slipped off.
Swanson wanted to give a reward to the
family for returning the ring, but they said they were just happy to return it.
Swanson instead donated $250 to the local food bank.
https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/cumberland-county/wedding-ring-found-halloween-candy-police-searching-trick-or-treat/521-74ee2cc4-0dae-4bee-8f01-1a37ac202b2f
WPMT-TV [Harrisburg, PA], 4 November 2022
Wedding ring found in Halloween candy,
police searching for owner
CAMP HILL, Pa. — Are you missing your
wedding ring?
The Camp Hill Police Department announced
on Friday that they are searching for the owner of a wedding ring found in a
child's trick-or-treat bag.
Police say a good Samaritan turned the ring
in Thursday night and it is in safe keeping while they try to find the finger
on which it belongs.
If you think this may be your ring, contact
Camp Hill Police at 717-737-1570. Police say to be prepared to discuss some
details of the ring.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/river-grove-missing-wedding-ring-halloween-candy/
WBBM-TV [Chicago], 6 November 2022
River Grove woman
loses wedding band while handing out candy on Halloween
RIVER GROVE, Ill.
(CBS) -- It was a heartbreaking Halloween for a suburban woman in River Grove
after she lost her wedding band while handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.
Now Nancy
Cairncross and her husband, Douglas, are putting up flyers around the
neighborhood, on everything from mailboxes to street signs and even the window
of a nearby diner.
"It sucks
it's gone because there's so much sentimental of that ring," Douglas said.
"That's 28 years of marriage."
The Cairncrosses are
asking whoever finds the ring to call them at 708-277-3276.
They are offering
a reward.
https://www.kcentv.com/article/news/community/temple-resident-searching-for-lost-wedding/500-b76608c0-22a0-446a-92c5-9398b08991f7
KCEN-TV [Temple,
Texas], 1 November 2023
Temple resident
searching for lost wedding ring, happened during trick-or-treating
TEMPLE, Texas — A
Temple resident who lost their wedding ring while participating in Halloween
festivities on Forest Trail in Temple, is asking the community for help. The
individual is Misti Smith. She lost her ring while trick-or-treating on the
trail on Oct.31. She wants the public to know the ring was not stolen, but just
slipped off her finger while passing out treats. […]
https://www.ksl.com/article/50774696/halloween-nightmare-how-this-utahns-wedding-ring-ended-up-in-a-trick-or-treaters-candy
KSL-TV [Salt Lake
City, UT], 2 November 2023
Halloween
nightmare: How this Utahn's wedding ring ended up in a trick-or-treater's candy
By Gabrielle
Shiozawa
BOUNTIFUL — […] Nicole Graveley spent Monday night before
Halloween putting together bags of Halloween candy, fidget toys and puzzles to
hand out to neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Somehow, whether it slipped off the
table into a bag or fell off her finger, Graveley's wedding ring ended up in
one of those bags. […]
That night, a
neighbor came over with the ring. Her young daughters had found it in their
Halloween candy. […]
https://www.nola.com/news/jefferson_parish/lsu-class-ring-from-1966-returned-to-owner-in-river-ridge/article_f753da2e-79ba-11ee-afa7-87a9cd808536.html
Nola.com [New Orleans,
LA], 3 November 2023
A 1966 LSU ring
that survived Vietnam was lost on Halloween. Then a unicorn found it.
[…] Mike Boudreaux
Sr. arrived home from helping his son hand out candy in Imperial Woods when he
realized the finger that had held his class ring every day for more than half a
century was bare. […]
Amanda Walter
manned the candy bowl at a friend’s house on Pike Street in Elmwood Park for
hours. It wasn’t until she got home and took off her jewelry that evening that
she realized her wedding ring, three bands soldered together with a marquis-cut
diamond in the middle, was missing. […]
https://ksltv.com/600204/herriman-woman-lost-wedding-ring-while-giving-out-halloween-candy/
KSL-TV [Salt Lake
City, UT], 7 November 2023
Herriman woman
lost wedding ring while giving out Halloween candy
[Guerra Sepulveda]
let the trick-or-treaters pick out what candy they wanted but also placed
handfuls of candy into their bags. It was during one of these friendly
exchanges that she thinks it happened. […]
The gold wedding
band her husband gave her 44 years ago, and the diamond ring he gifted her
years later were both gone. […]
Someone responded
to the social media post and contacted the family, saying they found a diamond
ring in their kids’ Halloween candy bag. However, after exchanging pictures, it
turns out that wasn’t her ring, which means someone else lost a ring, likely in
the same way that night. […]
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