How a watch missing for more than two decades was returned to its owner

A Melbourne woman has reunited a woman on the other side of the country with her watch, which went missing more than two decades ago.

Katrina McKinlay asked her mother to look after her watch, which had been a 21st gift, when she moved house in Western Australia more than 20 years ago.

But her mum misplaced the treasured watch and it was never seen again… until now.

Last week, Ms McKinlay received a call at work telling her that her watch had been found.

Initially, she didn’t believe it.

“I thought it was a scam – someone’s saying they’ve got my watch and they’re probably going to want money for it,” she told Neil Mitchell.

The call was from Nikki Cooke, a Melbourne carer, who found the watch while cleaning out an old work car after a collision.

“Wedged in the back of a car we saw … one of those sun visors you put on the car, and wrapped up inside was a jewellery box. Inside the jewellery box was a watch, and under the watch … was a receipt and the name of the jewellers where it was bought from,” she told Neil Mitchell.

Press PLAY below to hear the extraordinary story of how Nikki tracked the owner of the watch down