Greenport resident Sharyn Grossman will be able to set her Passover table with family heirlooms after all --- her missing family silver was found.
The silver, which holds great sentimental value, was believed to have been stolen, and Grossman appealed to the community last week for its return, "no questions asked."
On Sunday, Grossman said, her husband Bruce "discovered all of our silver. It was in a different box and in a place we had looked many times so I think whoever took it returned it. We didn't have a new lock installed until Friday afternoon."
Of the silver's return, Grossman said, "To say that I was overjoyed would not express how delighted I was."
Grossman said the couple went to the attic on Saturday again to look and did not see the silver. "On Sunday my husband was looking for something else and came upon a plastic container that had the boxes. I hadn't put the silver in that container and I never put anything where it was found because a friend's belongings are stored there. So I guess it will always be a mystery --one with a very happy ending."
The story began when Grossman went up to the attic to retrieve her family's beloved inherited silver set for a Passover celebration and was devastated to find that it had been stolen.
Grossman, who also lives part-time in New York, said when she returned to Greenport for the weekend she found that the silver had been taken out of her home, but nothing else.
The silver, she said, is not only valuable, worth $10,000, but holds great sentimental value. She had offered a reward for its return.
"My husband's mother's family was from Baltimore. Fannie and Stanley married in the late 20s or early 30s," she said. "They were given a service of Kirk's Repousse pattern. Kirk was a producer of sterling silver and was based in Baltimore. When we married in 1967 the silver was given to us."
Over the years, Grossman said, she added place settings whenever she found them, and had amassed somewhere between 16 and 18 place settings, which she used over the years to lovingly set tables for holiday celebrations.
Grossman said she also collected many sterling serving pieces, including those of other patterns beside the Repousse. Having been in in the antique business when she was younger, Grossman also collected, with the serving pieces, 16 sterling piecrust napkin rings.
"All of this was in my attic in an open cardboard carton in two large wooden silver chests," Grossman said. "I always left it in the attic so it would not get stolen if someone came in the house. I always use the silver at holiday times and I was getting ready for Passover and went up to the attic this past weekend."
Many cartons had been moved in the attic after damage was sustained to the roof after Hurricane Sandy, she said.
Grossman said she has her suspicions regarding who might have swiped the silver; she reported the incident to the Southold Town police as soon as the theft was discovered.
Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley confirmed a report was filed.
"The carton with the silver was the only thing taken from a 16-room house," Grossman said. "Nothing else was disturbed."
Grossman said her main goal was to bring her family heirloom home. "I have told the police that I would not press charges if the silver miraculously reappeared. Even if I got the money, it would not replace the stolen objects which I planned to pass on to my children."
