Woman accusing valet of stealing wedding ring

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- For Stacey Dotter, a wedding ring is more than just a piece of jewelry.

"It's the symbol that ties all of what happened in that day together. Forever," she said.

Around 8pm Saturday, she and her husband pulled up to the valet line at Dolce Vita in Montrose.

"I took my rings off to put lotion on, set them in the center console of my car, she said. "They had someone from valet open the door for each one of us."

Ten minutes into her dinner conversation with friends, Stacey said she realized she forgot to put her rings back on.

"I looked at my husband and I said, 'I left my ring in the car, you're going to have to go down and get it for me,'" she said.

But Dotter's wedding ring was nowhere to be found -- not in the center console where she said she left it, not anywhere in the car after a 30-minute search. One of the valet employees did turn in one ring to a restaurant hostess.

"But it was my other ring that I had in the car, the James Avery ring," said a disappointed Dotter.

The company, King Valet, hasn't responded to Dotter's multiple calls or messages.

While Dotter and her husband filed a police report, Officer Jim Woods with Houston Police Department's Auto Theft Division told us recovering the wedding ring will be difficult.

"This is not something that comes up on the radar that often," said Woods.

Dotter, who married in 2007, described her ring as a unique, three-diamond ring.

"The middle diamond is larger than the other two on the sides. All of them are turned in a kite-shape, and the middle one is raised higher than the others. The sides of the band are raised in a kite-shape, too," she said.

Dotter said despite the odds, she's still hopeful it could show up.

"I have a daughter, so it's something that I really would love to pass down to her," said Dotter.