Lost keys bring out the best in community dedication

• The search spanned months

When a cyclist from El Paso happened upon a set of keys near the entrance to Ranches of Sonterra on Airport Road north of Ruidoso, the encounter set in motion a search for the owner that lasted several months and defines the term “good neighbor.”

Dick Mastin, who serves on the community property owners board, said the key set contained two probable house keys and one  for a Subaru.

“The one for the Subaru was expensive and was one of those special keys with all the buttons on them,” he said.

The cyclist saw somebody at the mailboxes driving a Subaru. He went down and asked if the keys he found were theirs, but they said their keys were not missing, Mastin said. He told them he was from out of town and asked if he could give them to the couple.’

“They right away drove to our house, because we also have a Subaru,” Masin said. “They were happy to pass the keys to the next person.

“I posted it on our website, thinking it maybe was someone else here. We put a sign in the Alto post office, but nothing ever happened.  I’m on the board of Sonterra and I mentioned it at  a board meeting, asked if any of them owned a Subaru and were missing keys.”

While no one there claimed the keys, another board member offered to take set, drive to the municipal airport and push the button to see if any of the cars lit up. If not, he told Mastin he would see if he could find the owners.

“That was more than a month ago, maybe two or three,” Mastin said. ”He kept looking and yesterday, I received an email saying he won the chicken meal prize.”

“For me, I just kept it until something made a noise,” the board member and neighbor, who asked that his name not be used, said Wednesday. “Another individual contacted (Ruidoso Police) Chief (Darren) Hooker and Subaru, but they said they didn’t have any record of that key.”

The neighbors original thought was the keys probably belonged to someone who had a car parked down at the airport.

“So, I went down and trolled the airport and had no success there,” he said. “I went through some other neighborhoods around there and no success. I never got any noise, but every time I pulled into a parking lot and would see a Subaru, I would hit the button.

“The other day, I pulled into Albertson’s and there was a Subaru in front of me and I hit the button. It made no noise, but I could hear noise going off behind me. So, I just camped out there until the people came out of the grocery store and returned their keys. They said they had been looking for them for quite a while.

“It wasn’t a hardship on me or anyone involved. We just stayed at it until we found the right person. I kept it on me key chain and as a matter of fact, I recently commented to my wife, that my keys felt small now, because don’t have that key anymore.”