Bradenton, Florida - A Bradenton mother who was still grieving the death of her 19-year-old son suffered another heartbreaking setback when thieves broke into her family's home and stole his ashes earlier this month.
Lori Reek says, "I was shattered. It's like you have a hole in your heart. It's just ripped out."
Previous Story: Teen's ashes, tooth fairy money stolen
But a good samaritan found the ashes and contacted the Manatee County Sheriff's Office on Monday. Deputies returned the ashes of Nikolas Reek to his family on Tuesday morning.
Nikolas Reek was a Manatee High School graduate who was working as a cook at the Ritz Carlton. His mother says he always loved to cook and hoped to one day open his own restaurant with his brother. She says she can remember when his father would stand over him and allow him to make scrambled eggs when he was just four years old.
Nikolas was killed a little more than two years ago when an impaired driver pulled out in front of his motorcycle and killed him. He'd been planning to propose to his girlfriend in New York.
His mother says the thieves broke into the family's home sometime between July 3 and July 5. Lori had taken her 11-year-old daughter to Camp Blanding to visit her father, who is a Sergeant First Class in the Army.
Reek says the thief or thieves broke in through a window and bypassed computers, a Wii system, and televisions to get to a safe she kept stored away in her bedroom. The safe weighs about 50 pounds.
The ashes of her son were inside the safe along with a coin collection and jewelry. But Reek says , "I don't think they realized that Nikolas was in the safe."
His ashes weren't in an urn. She says, "It was in a tin can that had his name labeled on it."
Reek's family posted a bright neon green sign outside their home and even offered a $500 reward to get the ashes back with no questions asked.
It worked. Someone saw Reek's story through media reports and contacted the Manatee County Sheriff's Office and turned over the ashes. Reek says they didn't even ask about the reward.
Toale Brothers Funeral Home wouldn't let Lori receive her son's ashes in a tin can, though. They transferred them to an urn, which they donated to the family.
Lori says, "And now it feels like I'm closing that hole because I have him home and I'm just ecstatic inside. It's hard to explain how it feels to get this back."
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