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Local town coming together to help find bracelet commemorating fallen Mass. vet

WALPOLE, Mass. — A lost bracelet has the attention of strangers and even the police after a man lost it inside a Walpole park. And what's drawing people to the park to search for it isn’t the bracelet's value, but its meaning.

Boston 25 News spent Monday at Bird Park and down the street at Bird Middle school with the Winer family looking for the bracelet, but the search, unfortunately, turned up nothing.

Walpole Police also did a line and grid search there on Monday but were unable to find anything. Even complete strangers in the community came out to search, but it still hasn’t been found.

How hard would you search for a needle in a haystack? Well it depends on how valuable that needle was.

For the third day in a row, one family was back out looking for veteran Corey Winer's other Army bracelet.

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"Two primaries for me in my life that I have lost have been Derek and Tommy," Winer said. "Derek was killed in action in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan."

And First Lieutenant Derek S. Hines' bracelet has remained on Winer’s wrist every day since his death in 2005.

"Now after 14 years, I have been jumping off of cliffs, swimming wherever, getting on roller coasters and the thing never came off, and then I just lost it like that," Winer said.

While shuttling his kids to football and soccer Saturday, Winer lost it, likely somewhere at Bird Park or Bird Middle School. And then, after a few shares on social media, a groundswell of support came.

"It was unbelievable, people like, 'Where did it go? Where was he at? What can I do? I have a metal detector,'" said Lori Winer, Corey's wife. "Even the police were out here. Walpole Police Department. I met them today at Bird Park, it is unbelievable. I did not expect that."

Despite the searches, the bracelet which reads, "Be thou at peace," remains missing.

"We were teammates, we were brothers for Army hockey, and for me to have that on my wrist knowing that Derek was with me and know whenever times get tough for me I can just look down," Winer said.

And Winer knows that he can buy another one, but he says it will never replace the original one.