HAYDEN — A stolen chair is going back where it belongs, thanks to sheriff’s deputies, an active Neighborhood Watch program and a letter to the editor.

The chair was valued at a mere $40 or so by owner Sue Jones, but that’s not the point.

“I bought the chair for my first grandchild when she was a toddler,” Jones wrote in a letter to The Press published Wednesday. “She, her grandpa, since passed, and I had many sweet, lovely lunches outside with her sitting in her little, big girl chair, and us in ours. She loved that chair, and since she has grown up, it has had a special place of display on the deck, each holiday being home to character dolls to commemorate whatever the season.”

But late last week, the chair went missing from the Rocking R development home. Jones’ newspaper plea for help was seen just down the street by neighbor Bob Gummow.

“We had a rash of petty thefts around the neighborhood,” said Gummow, head of Rocking R Neighborhood Watch. “We think it was kids.”

Reporting that Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies had chased the kids into a field where several items were apparently ditched, Gummow emailed folks on his Neighborhood Watch list. When a description of the chair mentioned in the letter matched one found in the field, Gummow called The Press on Friday morning. He was given Jones’ phone number, and arrangements for the chair’s return were made.

“We just want to keep these little boogers from doing this again,” Jones said Friday. “Whether it’s my chair or my car, it’s stealing, and that’s not right.”

Jones, no stranger to sharing her thoughts on the Press Opinions page, said in this case her effort was rewarded.

“See?” she said. “It pays to write a letter.”