Bracelet found in chicken after 25 years lost

Bracelet Found in Chicken After 25 Years

It won't fit him anymore, but a Massachusetts man has his metal identity bracelet back after it was found inside a chicken gizzard in this southern Minnesota city — more than 25 years after he lost it in his grandfather's barn.

Aaron Giles, 31, of Gloucester, Mass., lived in Fairmont as a child and played hide-and-seek and other games with his brothers in their grandfather's barn near Sherburn.

"I would spend most of my time out at his farm and that's the only place I can think of that I would have lost it," Giles said Thursday, adding that he thinks it was lost when he was 4 or 5 years old.

The barn was dismantled a few years ago, and the materials were used to construct another barn in rural Elmore, about 45 miles away, he said. Giles thinks his bracelet was imbedded in the barn materials when they were moved.

Workers at Olson Locker in Fairmont were cutting the meat of chickens that came from an Elmore farm when one of them, Brittany McDonald, came across a shiny object in a chicken gizzard. McDonald, whose grandfather owns the locker, saw Aaron's name, address and phone number engraved on it.

"It's the strangest story that I have ever heard in the meat locker business," said Mark Olson, McDonald's grandfather. "I've heard of livestock swallowing unusual objects, but this situation stands out."

Olson was able to track down Giles' father, Doug, who had moved to Arizona. Giles says he received his old bracelet in September.

"It was in pretty immaculate shape. Everything was working on it, and all the engravings on it were still legible," Giles said. "It was quite the surprise."

Giles said he expects the bracelet to stay in his family for many years to come. "I have no plans on trying to lose it again," he said.

                                              kenb                                           

Hey Ken,

Nice story!  I know, you may have read this on the WWW or in a newspaper but what has me baffled is that it took that long to locate the owner of the bracelet?...I hope that was the case.  Not the chicken living 25 years (never heard such a thing) or the chicken gizzard was frozen that long.  My goodness, if that's the case I won't be eating chicken for a long, long time.

But, things like chickens eating shiny objects is true.  My pet chicken (Americauna, lays the Easter eggs), her name was Dixie Chick, well she ate my 10K gold ball earrings. This happened on 2 different occasions, when she died of a old age (7 yrs old), I was not about to do a necropsy on her to get my earring back.  I know where she is buried, I was just wondering if the MD will pick up the gold signals?  No way! 

 ;) RR

      Hi all. After moveing from Iona in the mid 1960's.........to N Minn, my dad and my siblings and I lived at our grandparents farm. In those days, my grandparents had a poultry slaughter house. They bought chickens on the hoof from farmers, butchered them, and sold them to local stores and to customers on a route. I remember going with my grandparents in a old 1950's a model 1 ton IHC truck, with a huge cage on back, to buy chickens from farmers, an haul them home. Chickens were butchered, cut up, and bagged and delivered to stores and customers in less than 24 hours after being killed. That was fresh chicken!!!
     
     Anyway, it was my job to clean and skin the gizzards. I found dimes, pennies, pistol shells, rings, even needles, and safety pins. If a chicken could swallow it, and it was shiny.............you found it in a gizzard. The chicken likely found the bracelet in the barn area after parts were moved to new location, and bracelet dislodged from where it had been lost.

      Hey its winter, even mundane stories help pass the time till spring and  we can take our detectors out. I already have 3 years worth of hunting planned to do, in just one summer!!! Anyone want to help??

Take your machine (and ax) to the chicken coupe and have a good time