Thanks to Facebook, a football star will get back his sentimentally valuable jewelry. And thanks to a very kind family in Smokey Point who took the humanitarian route.
Quinton Eugene Cobb no longer needed his motorhome a few years ago. He gave it to neighbors in Smokey Point.
“He
decided to move to Mexico,” said his daughter, Julie Freeman. “There was just no time to deal with the motorhome.”
Cobb, who lived in Shoreline, worked for Fisher Controls, then started his own company called Northwest Controls. The motorhome had a new home and so did Cobb, near Guadalajara, Mexico.
Enter David and Rhonda Graves. They noticed their neighbor wasn’t tooling around in the older RV.
Maybe they could use the motorhome to camp?
David Graves paid a few bucks for storage fees, turned over the engine, drove the motorhome into his spacious yard and parked it under a carport.
“We were going to try to use it in the summer,” he said.
That was in better times.
As a self-employed carpenter, Graves found work only here and there in recent months. The couple have six children.
David Graves said for extra cash, he turned to tearing apart the Jamboree motorhome, sold the scrap metal, and had plans to convert the rig into a flatbed he could use for work.
Lo and behold, behind some interior paneling, he found a little blue jewelry case and some scattered items.
Here is what he found:
Two slightly chewed, expired passports.
A ring from the University of Oklahoma Engineers.
A ring from a high school with QEC engraved inside.
A money clip with a 1972 Eisenhower silver dollar.
Two football necklace charms from 1955 and 1957.
Five, 10 and 15 year pins from Fisher Service.
A key to the city of Baton Rouge, La.
Engineering fraternity pins.
Two tie tacks.
And an 1891 silver dollar from the San Francisco Mint.
The Graveses could tell from the pins that the owner was past vice president of the Instrument Society of America.
Rhonda Graves, who grew up in Lake Stevens, said they didn’t have the time or resources to track down Quinton Cobb. They called me.
I went into my amazing sleuth mode. I flipped on Facebook, and there was a very handsome Quinton Cobb, who graduated from Ada High School in 1958 in Oklahoma and from the University of Oklahoma.
I sent him a message and he asked me to call his daughter in Marysville.
Julie Freeman was super nice and talked to her father in Mexico. He would like to have his jewelry and things returned, she said. She confirmed he was born in Oklahoma.
“He was a star on the football team,” she said. “The red and white Boomer Sooners is his college.”
Cobb enjoys the weather in Mexico and the lifestyle, his daughter said.
I’ll be sharing the Graveses’ phone number with Julie Freeman so she can retrieve her father’s valuables.
“The stuff doesn’t belong to me,” Graves said. “This might be something his grandchildren might want.”
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com
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