[KHTS] – Missing heirlooms, a road trip and a grateful son led to a happy ending for Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies and a San Diego man this week.

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials regularly receive unused or outdated prescriptions in their drug drop-off bins outside the Sheriff’s Station on Magic Mountain Parkway in Valencia.

“Three recycled U.S. Post Office mailboxes are lined up in front of the Sheriff’s Station,” said Deputy Josh Dubin of the station’s Crime Prevention Unit. “Each bin is labeled to receive a different drug-related item: illegal drugs in the center, prescription medications on the right and an oversized box for biohazards and needles on the left.”

Deputies collect about 400 pounds of drugs each week, Dubin said.

Although last week, deputies received more than the usual collection of expired prescriptions.

In one of numerous containers collected when the bins were emptied last week, deputies found a prescription pill bottle filled with jeweled family heirlooms, instead of the usual medications.

“Through the course of looking for the proper owner, a detective with the station’s Narcotics Unit learned that the previous owner of the prescription had died,” Dubin said.

The detective was then able to track down the deceased man’s son, a 46-year-old university professor in San Diego, who asked to remain anonymous.

After the man was able to describe the jewelry, the detective learned it had great sentimental value to the man.

It just so happened Sgt. Bob Wachsmuth of the Juvenile Intervention Unit, or J-Team, which focuses on drug-related offenses in the Santa Clarita Valley was going to San Diego, and volunteered to personally deliver the lost heirlooms.

Wachsmuth reunited the wayward jewelry with a grateful heir Friday.

“This is a great example of how Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies were able to work together and help the community we serve,” Dubin said. “Our work is more than just violations and arrests, it’s about making a positive difference in the Santa Clarita Valley.”