AUBURN – To the woman in Ward 1 nursing an Election Day loss: The Washburn School has found your necklace.

Now they’d like to find you.

School secretary Gail Theberge said she got a call Nov. 3, the morning after the election, from a woman who believed she might have dropped her silver necklace and pendant somewhere between the voting booth and the parking lot. She didn’t notice it missing until she was getting ready for bed that night.

By any chance, had someone found it?

“She said, It’s just a shot in the dark,'” Theberge said. “Her husband gave it to her. She seemed very upset.”

Voting booths were still being collapsed and floors swept, but when the cleaning was over nothing had turned up. Theberge, an 18-year veteran of the Auburn schools, sent a note to teachers, asking them to keep their eyes open.

More than 2,000 voters had come through the school on Election Day. It didn’t look good.

Then, two weeks ago, a third-grader spotted something in the grass by the buses. She rushed up to Theberge saying “Mrs. T, look what I found!”

The necklace.

“The grass hadn’t been mowed, thank goodness,” she said. “I’m tickled.”

Theberge doesn’t have the woman’s name or number, and the woman hasn’t checked back since her first call, but Theberge hopes she will. The school’s number is 784-5467.

“I hope it’s what she’s looking for,” said Theberge.