STATESVILLE, N.C. — Suppose you stumbled across someone else's family heirloom -- what would you do about it? A couple in Statesville had no problem answering that question after they uncovered a stranger's family treasure they knew nothing about.
When you own and operate an escape room, you're always on the lookout for antiques, but something Roger and Kim Siegrist found recently stopped them in their tracks.
"We were both struck by this memorabilia sitting there for sale," Kim Siegrist said. "Things that were earned at such a cost were for sale for $125."
The Statesville couple didn't know who Coy Goines was, but they were struck by the life he led.
"The legacy of a man who landed on Normandy on D-Day, who fought in North Africa, who won the Purple Heart -- a genuine hero of freedom -- and his legacy is found by my wife in a thrift shop," Roger Siegrist said.
They said they were flabbergasted. Still, they left that day without it.
"I decided to go back and get it, and I decided to put our fans on the case," Kim Siegrist said.
After all, fans of an escape room love a good mystery to solve.
"There has to be somebody," she said. "There has to be somebody alive."
Within one week, the couple and their customers discovered a great-niece of the escaped soldier living on the west coast.
"She knew that he had passed away, that he had never married, that when he came home from the war he was changed, according to her grandmother," Kim Siegrist said.
After the war, Goines led a quiet life. How his medals ended up for sale isn't clear, but his great-niece would very much like them back.
"She was overwhelmed by it and is very excited to get it," Kim Siegrist said.
The Siegrist's hope to hand-deliver them and they're looking into raising funds.
They're already in a couple of hundred bucks and there's no reward in sight.
"There's no pay off for us," Roger Siegrist said. "The pay off is doing the right thing."
If you'd like to help the Siegrist couple get the soldier's medals back to his West Coast family, contact them at Key To Escape escape room in Statesville.
"This needs to be with blood relatives," Kim Siegrist said.