Memorial Athletic Club hopes to reunite missing artificial eye with owner

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A customer was walking out of the Memorial Athletic Club when something on the ground caught his eye. What he found turns out to be worth a lot of money, and someone out there needs it back.

"Didn't even look to see what it was. It was in a jewelry case, you know, a little box, and it made a noise, and he just assumed there was something in there," said Joseph Gabriel with the Memorial Athletic Club.

The man who found it turned it in to lost and found at Memorial Athletic Club, thinking someone was missing a ring or necklace.

When Gabriel opened the box, he found an artificial eye.

"Something about the eyes in general always attract your attention, but to see one in a box, you know, looking up at you was a little bit surprising," he said.

The ocular prosthesis is made out of acrylic, hand-painted and custom fitted.

"We use various materials to replace the volume of the eye and then we use an acrylic prosthetic that fits under the eyelid to give the appearance of an eye," Baylor College of Medicine opthamologist Dr. Michael Yen said.

Yen says a patient wouldn't normally take out the prosthesis unless it's new and the patient is still getting used to how it feels.

Somehow this one ended up in the parking lot, and it's not cheap.

"The custom, hand-painted ones can run several thousand dollars," Yen said.

The athletic club staff sent out a message on social media, trying to find the owner.

"Tt's apparently very valuable and probably of great importance to the person who owns it," Gabriel said.

Employees are keeping the eye safe until its owner claims it.

If you or someone you know is missing an artificial eye, contact the Memorial Athletic Club at 281-497-7570.