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Woman Searching For Treasured Family Heirloom Lost In Manhattan

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- This Sunday is Mother's Day, but for one New York woman, it will be a tough reminder.

Bonnie Hilton Green lost her mother more than a year ago. And recently, she lost an important heirloom of hers.

"She was my very best friend. And as old as I am, she was my protector," Hilton Green said.

As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, after her mother passed away, Hilton Green had an idea that involved her mother's long pearl necklace.

"I had it made into a bracelet with a few tiny little diamonds from my grandmother, in fact," she said. "It was a real heirloom piece and it wrapped in four strands."

And when she put it on, "I felt like she was with me and I felt like she was protecting me," she said.

But the second time Hilton Green ever wore it out, she lost it.

"I put it on while I was on the Long Island Rail Road," she said.

Hilton Green had taken a LIRR train from Port Washington to Penn Station, then hailed a cab from 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue.

She got out of the cab between 57th and 58th streets, went into the Starbucks there and then the market, then crossed Sixth Avenue and went into a building, Gainer reported.

Hilton Green said she's been in touch with both stores and she's been passing out flyers, but so far hasn't had any luck.

"I've checked with police precincts. I've checked with pawn shops. I've called the TLC. I've posted on Craigslist. I put up a website," she said.

If you have information about the bracelet, head to Lostpearlbracelet.com.

Hilton Green also checked the MTA and LIRR lost and found.

One problem she believes could be that people aren't sure where to turn something in once they've found it on the street.

So Gainer asked some people on the street what they would do.

"But I would not know where I had to deliver it," said one man.

"Oh, maybe..I don't know what I'd do with that," one woman said.

"Street? I'm not sure," said another woman.

As a result, Hilton Green said she and a friend are tossing around the idea of creating an app that would centralize lost and found in New York City.

But in the meantime, she's hoping someone will do the right thing.

"People don't necessarily realize when they find something that the emotional value is much greater than the financial value," she said.

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