If you've ever left something valuable on the roof of your car and then driven off without it, then you'll probably understand the total agony that Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie felt last month when the same thing happened to him.
Only DeOssie didn't leave a coffee, a laptop or a cell phone on the top of his car, he left something much worse: His two Super Bowl rings that he won with the Giants.
This story starts back on May 2 after DeOssie had just hosted a charity event with his wife, where he showed off his two rings, which he won thanks to the Giants' two Super Bowl wins over the Patriots. DeOssie, who's currently a team captain, has been with the Giants since his rookie year in 2007.
After he got home from the event, DeOssie realized he didn't have the rings with him, which led the 34-year-old to contact police. DeOssie wasn't sure if the rings had been stolen, so he had the Summit (N.J.) Police Department investigate the incident.
After a short investigation, everyone eventually realized what had happened: DeOssie had left both Super Bowl rings, valued at a total of $34,000, on top of his car.
The good news for DeOssie is that this story does have a partially happy ending.
In a supplementary police report that was obtained by Deadspin, the reporting officer noted that a man who had been out walking his dog on May 3 -- the morning after DeOssie lost the two rings -- noticed some shattered glass on the ground. When the man went to pick up the glass, he saw a "small box with a ring under it." At that point, the man realized that it was a ring from Super Bowl XLVI.
The ring had DeOssie's name on it, which made it easy for the man to make sure that DeOssie was reunited with the ring. According to the police report, the ring had an estimated value of $19,000. As for the other ring, it's starting to look like that $15,000 piece of jewelry -- that commemorated the Giants' Super Bowl XLII win over the 18-0 Patriots -- won't be found. It's now been six weeks since the rings went missing and that one still hasn't been returned.
Of course, it's possible the ring hasn't been returned because it's sitting somewhere in a New Jersey landfill. The man who found the Super Bowl XLVI ring noted that he threw away the box he had found without looking inside of it (The ring he found was under the box). Police believe the ring accidentally ended up in a recycling bin or got swept away by a city street sweeper.
Things could have definitely been worse here, DeOssie could have lost both rings permanently or someone could have found the ring, but not returned it.
As things stand, it appears that DeOssie is going to have to settle for getting a replacement Super Bowl XLII ring from his insurance company.
"Nothing will ever replace the original," DeOssie recently told NJ.com. "These rings are near and dear to my heart and it was a sad, sad realization that I haphazardly misplaced them. I'm definitely getting a new one made, and hopefully over time I can enjoy it just as much as I did the first one."
After this mistake, there's probably a good chance that DeOssie is going to be checking the roof of his car before he drives anywhere for the rest of time.
