While they were helping hit-and-run victim, their rings, wallet were stolen

After 15 years together, the Cowans are contemplating buying new wedding rings.

“It’ll never be the same. I know she’s always joking to me …, ‘When ya gonna buy me a bigger diamond?’” Billie Cowan said. “But it’s not supposed to happen this way.”

They’re having to think about a new set of bands because of a crime they say happened in the aftermath of another one, March 13 in the Sacramento neighborhood of Del Paso Heights.

“We always lock our truck here in the driveway,” Kathy Cowan said, “and the only time it wasn’t locked was when we were at that scene.”

The scene she’s talking about was an early evening hit and run at the intersection of Norwood Avenue and Silver Eagle Road.

The Cowans rushed to help the elderly woman they saw thrown over the hood of a white Mustang that hit her as she tried to cross the street.

In the midst of the chaos, they left their Dodge Mega Cab in the turn lane.

“So me, hopping out of the truck, I wasn’t thinking, ‘Lock it.’ I was more concerned with the lady in the street, what was going on,” said Kathy Cowan. “Didn’t think anything about inside our truck.”

But the couple’s wedding rings and a class ring were tucked inside Kathy’s wallet on the truck’s floorboard, on the way to a regular cleaning by a jeweler.

Once the scene was clear, so was the wallet, along with Kathy’s cash and credit cards.

“The money can all be replaced. It’s the rings,” she said.

“Just be honest, admit your guilt. Set aside the rings,” said her husband.

The Cowans have friends who operate North City Jewelry & Loan. They say the wedding rings could be surrendered there – with no questions asked. They just want them back.

The identity of the woman hit March 13 and her current condition have not been released.

Police say that although they received license plate pictures of the suspect car from witnesses, determining just who was driving was another matter.

Sonseeahray Tonsall is a staff writer for Fox40, a Tribune Broadcasting property.