VALDOSTA — Leaving Valdosta, Shelly Penland thought she would never again see her jewelry, including heirloom rings that had once been worn by her grandmother and great-grandmother.

“I believed they were gone forever,” she told The Times. “Good things don’t happen much any more.”  With a little help from a South Georgia family and a classified ad in The Valdosta Daily Times, a good thing happened to Shelly Penland.

Her lost jewelry came home Tuesday afternoon. But even more, the Penlands’ faith in humanity has been restored.

“I thought someone had stolen my family’s jewelry,” she said. “But along comes these good people. You just don’t expect to find good people anymore.”

Shelly, husband Jason Penland, and their two children traveled earlier this month to Valdosta to attend a wedding. The Penlands live in Asheville, N.C., where he works at a mortuary service.

On Saturday, June 19, Jason Penland packed the couple’s Dodge Caravan in the lot of the Hilton Garden Inn on Gornto Road, Jason told The Times by phone Tuesday. Shelly Penland joined him, placing two handbags in the back of the Caravan.

Across the street, stopped at Valdosta Mall, they discovered that the Caravan’s back door had opened. The two handbags were gone. They retraced their steps but did not find the handbags.

They reported the bags missing to the Valdosta Police Department and with other motels in the area. They listed a classified ad in The Times under “Lost & Found.” The ad read: “LOST LUGGAGE: cosmetic bag and very small airplane carry on bag. Valdosta mall/ Hilton area. Luggage fell out of vehicle. Reward offered for return of all contents or information that leads to the return.”

Contents included several 14-karat gold pieces of jewelry. Among these items were wedding rings belonging to Shelly Penland’s grandmother and great-grandmother, a friendship ring that had belonged to her mother, and Shelly’s baby ring from her childhood. Shelly had also lost her engagement and wedding rings.

Returning home Sunday night, June 20, the Penlands felt they would never see the jewelry again.

“When we got back home, we had taken the jewelry for a loss,” he said. “We never expected to see it again.”

Possibly within only a matter of moments after the handbags fell out of the Penlands’ Caravan, Jim and Carolyn Harnage of Echols County were driving along Gornto Road. They were discussing seeing a movie with their grandchild when Carolyn Harnage saw the handbags in the road.

The Harnages stopped their Jeep in the turn lane and placed the handbags in the back of the vehicle. They continued with their Saturday plans. Later, they noticed that the handbags contained no identification. By Thursday, June 24, the Harnages decided to look inside the handbags.

“We were looking for a name when Carolyn said, ‘Gold,’” Jim Harnage said.

Seeing the rings and the children’s jewelry, he said, “I knew someone’s just crying about losing this.”

Jim Harnage looked in The Times classifieds and saw the Penlands’ Lost & Found ad. He called the number and soon was in contact with Jason Penland.

Late last week, the Penlands were in Atlanta. They had attended an amusement park and Shelly Penland had suffered a sore neck from a roller coaster.

“When I told her the jewelry had been found, she sprung right up like nothing had happened to her neck,” Jason Penland said.

On Monday, June 28, Jim Harnage sent the handbags and jewelry to the Penlands by FedEx. On Tuesday afternoon, the Penlands received the package. Everything she had lost had been found.

The Harnages lead the South Georgia-based Silent Ministries. They have found lost items on past occasions. They always return them.

“I’m afraid what God would do to me if I didn’t return this,” Jim Harnage said, “but we’ve lost stuff too and know that sick feeling. ... We wanted to return it to them because that’s the right thing to do. But also because good does still happen.”

Jason Penland echoed that sentiment, referring to the Harnages as among the “last good people to be found.”