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Ex-Lions star’s Grey Cup rings accidentally donated to charity

Cory Mantyka was one of the best offensive linemen to play for the B.C. Lions and he has a place on the team’s Wall of Fame and two Grey Cup rings to prove it. Well, he did have a pair of rings, until recently.
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Cory Mantyka had taken the rings out for an event.

Cory Mantyka was one of the best offensive linemen to play for the B.C. Lions and he has a place on the team’s Wall of Fame and two Grey Cup rings to prove it.

Well, he did have a pair of rings, until recently.

The gold rings, which he received for being part of the Lions’ Cup-winning teams in 1994 and 2000, are no longer in his possession after they were mistakenly included with boxes of donated goods picked up by a local charity.

“At the end of the day, [a ring] is just a piece of jewelry. But it has a lot of sentimental value to me,” Mantyka said.

The oversized rings were usually tucked out of sight in a safety deposit box, but Mantyka brought them out for an August event at B.C. Place Stadium.

No one is pointing fingers at the Mantyka household in Surrey, but somehow, after the event, the rings didn’t get locked away, and instead ended up in a collection of items handed over to the Canadian Diabetes Association last month and likely delivered to a Value Village thrift shop in Langley. Mantyka and his wife, Kristie, visited the store, but no one there had spotted the lost rings.

“We had a routine of where we kept the rings and we got a little casual with it. A bunch of things were grabbed and they were grabbed with it,” Kristie Mantyka said.