Harvey Cedars mechanic honored by police for helping vacationer find deceased mother’s lost jewelry

Photo by Ryan Morrill
One good deed leads to another for
Barnegat resident Jimmy Schroeder.

During the Harvey Cedars Police Department’s annual awards ceremony, held at borough hall Tuesday, March 24, Jimmy Schroeder, a Barnegat resident who has worked as a mechanic at the Harvey Cedars borough yard for the past 17 years, got to relive some of the pleasant feelings he experienced in the summer when he made it his personal mission to find a vacationer’s lost rings. Police Sgt. Sean Marti nominated Schroeder for the award, and it was presented by Chief Tom Preiser. Schroeder’s wife, Debbi, and their youngest daughter, Dana, sat in the audience in support.

“It’s nice to be appreciated sometimes; I felt honored,” Schroeder said. “It wasn’t anything I expected; it wasn’t anything I thought I’d get. I kind of forgot about it. It brings that warm feeling back to you.”

Determined to find the vacationer’s late mother’s engagement and blue topaz birthstone rings, which Amanda McKiverkin, 15, of Washington, lost at the beach on Aug. 21, Schroeder spent his 15-minute work break the following day sifting through debris from the beach cleaner, where he unexpectedly found the jewelry.

“If I wouldn’t have looked for it, it probably would have bothered me deeply,” Schroeder told The SandPaper in an interview following the August incident. “... I know what it feels like to lose a parent. I know what kind of meaning those little artifacts or possessions have.”

Schroeder, who lost his father around the same age as McKiverkin lost her mother, recounted a story in August about his father’s missing ball cap, which he was especially fond of. He recently told The SandPaper that his sister found and returned the hat to him just a few weeks after the article was published.

“The way everything worked out, to get something of mine that was lost, it was like, ‘Holy cow,’” Schroeder said. “Everything happens for a reason. You always hear that, and you don’t understand it, but it’s a warm, fuzzy feeling.”

Schroeder received his first award, a certificate of merit, from the local police in 2009. The award was presented in honor of his efforts to renovate a newly purchased Kawasaki Mule into a police vehicle for the department, which, due to budget issues, could not afford to have it fixed through an outside company. The alterations were completed during Schroeder’s personal time at home.

“I care for this town, and they care for me,” Schroeder said.

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.