It was summer and I was hanging out with my younger brother Jatin at the Marine Drive which is located in Mumbai, India. I have to say, the sun was quite hot than usual and we ran out of water in no time. There was a restaurant nearby and Jatin thought it would be a good idea to have a milkshake.
"Dude, this restaurant has the most amazing milkshake you will ever find in the Mumbai." Said Jatin.
"Really? I haven't had any milkshakes since I turned 21." I said in a low tone.
"Ah, come on! They taste great than that nasty yellowish soda."
"Adulthood, Jatin, Adulthood. You won't understand."
As we reached the funky looking restaurant we noticed the waiter came towards us and told us that the restaurant was quite full and to wait around 10-15 minutes until we get a table. We agreed to wait and stood near the hotel. Jatin was looking at the people who were enjoying their food inside the hotel.
Soon enough a group of young ladies left and we got a table. I ordered lemonade ignoring the fact that they made the best milkshakes in the city. My brother is quite curious about everything and he was constantly looking here and there. After a few minutes, we got our order. At the same time, my brother's eyes caught something shiny underneath my left leg and to our surprise, it was a diamond ring. At first, I thought that it was a fake one but a quick Google search and some careful inspection revealed that it was a real one!
"We have to find the owner of this ring!" I said hurriedly while paying the bill.
"But...We just got here! And I haven't even finished up the whole shake!" My brother cried.
"Look, these diamonds rings are very expensive and you could buy at least 400 milkshakes at its price point."
Convinced, my brother and I accepted the ultimate mission. We first contacted the hotel manager. He inspected the CCTV cameras. The footage wasn't very clear (It was like watching a 144p video on YouTube) but the sparkling diamond was well captured in the CCTV footage. We found out that the ring belonged to one of the young ladies, who were sitting just before we got that table. Those ladies got to the restaurant, parked their car in the parking lot and after munching some pizza, they drove off. That's it. Their face was not visible properly in that footage.
"Can I have this footage?" I said while taking out my pen drive from my pocket.
"Uh, yeah, sure but kindly return this ring honestly to that lady." Said the manager.
We left the restaurant and started roaming near the hotel, hoping that to see those ladies somewhere but it was in vain. We lost our hope for that day and decided to get home and call it a day. I convinced my brother not to utter anything about what happened today to anyone as I wanted to keep this a secret until we complete this mission.
12:41 AM
(Crickets chirping)
I was wide awake, just lying in my bed, thinking about the whole thing that had happened. Did I make a mistake by not contacting the police? Am I really a responsible citizen? What if I didn't find that young girl? Many questions were popping up inside my head and it seemed like there was no way out.
Suddenly an idea struck me.
"The internet can certainly help me to hand over this diamond ring to that lady!" I screamed inside my head.
I opened Instagram, typed in the location and began to inspect each and every photo that was posted on yesterday evening. I looked up different nearby places but nah, there was no trace of that girl with the yellow top.
I double checked the CCTV footage but was unable to get any new details.
2:36 AM
(Stomach growling)
Oh, snap! I really wished the hunger had buttons like 'Confirm' and 'Not now'. My hungry stomach dragged me to the kitchen and I began to hunt for some leftovers. I found some biryani in the fridge. I took it out and put it in the oven. I was looking out from the window and saw a lot of cars which were still passing through the road even at this late night!
"Mumbai never sleeps." I thought to myself.
"WAIT A SECOND!" I screamed again, but this time loudly.
It hit me again. I opened my laptop and started playing the parking lot footage again. The number plate of that white shiny Mercedes was visible. I noted it down and said -
"Hey, Google! Open Play Store."
I knew there was an app out there which provided vehicle owner's name and details of the car from the RTO (Regional Transport Office) database. After a quick search, I found out that the car belonged to a girl named Samantha Matthews. The phone number wasn't listed for privacy concerns.
Now, it all came down to an easy Facebook search. I did find a lot of profiles with the same name but one profile caught my eye. She lived in the Mumbai, had checked in at the same restaurant several times and had the same ring on her finger in her profile photo. I was really happy and looking for the 'Message' button. Obviously, it was disabled.
3:14 AM
(Awkward silence)
"Sniff-sniff"
"SHIT! THE BIRYANI!"
I ran downstairs to find the biryani burnt and I was totally busted by my mom. She asked me what I was up to at such an hour and I decided to spill the truth. I was managed to convince her that I was close to getting her contact details and that I did not need any help regarding this matter. I came back to my room and continued my investigation.
I tried my luck on Instagram by searching her Facebook username and I was in. Finally, I found her profile and sent her a DM asking her whether she had lost something valuable just to verify that it was really her.
6:36 AM
(Birds chirping)
Samantha did reply that she had lost her diamond ring somewhere and asked how I came to know about it. I sent her a photo of that ring and asked her to get to the yesterday's restaurant so that I can return it back to her. We met, I gave her the ring, she hugged me tightly and thanked me at least a million times before we left.
On my way home, I followed her on Instagram and DMed her again saying those three magical words - "Follow back, please? 😉"
Update: She did follow me back.
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