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Son of Packers great offers $5K reward for Super Bowl II ring lost at gas station

A Super Bowl ring that used to belong to a member of the Green Bay Packers' Hall of Fame has gone missing.

Mike Kostelnik, son of former Packers defensive tackle Ron Kostelnik, told the Green Bay Press Gazette that his father's ring from the Packers' Super Bowl II championship was lost during a family trip out of state.

Kostelnik is reportedly offering a $5,000 cash reward for the return of the ring, no questions asked.

How a Packers Super Bowl ring was lost

Jan 31, 2018; Minneapolis, MN, USA; A view of Super Bowl II ring to commemorate the Green Bay Packers 33-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla. on Jan. 14, 1968. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
If found, please return to Mike Kostelnik. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports) (USA Today Sports / reuters)

According to Kostelnik's account, he and his family were on a trip last weekend from their home in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, to Indiana University in Bloomington, where his daughter Rachel is a student. Kostelnik's youngest daughter Olivia reportedly wanted to tour Miami University of Ohio during the trip, so she and her father made the trip east on Sunday.

Kostelnik told the Press Gazette that he had the ring in his car in Bloomington and made one stop along the way at a BP gas station in Greensburg, Indiana. When they returned to Bloomington, the ring had vanished:

“We don’t know what happened to the ring,” Mike said. “When we got to Miami, it was gone. I had taken it off my finger. When you wear that ring, it’s heavy. If your fingers are swollen in the morning, it’s a little hard to carry. So, I know I put it in the console (of the car). My daughter and I just don’t know what happened to it.”

Repeated searches of the car by both Kostelnik and his wife reportedly did not turn up the ring, nor did a return to the BP station. Now, a bounty is being put on the ring.

Unfortunately for Kostelnik, the $5,000 figure may not be enough to sway a person who is hypothetically weighing his options between money and altruism. Super Bowl rings typically auction for far more than that, and the jewels in the ring alone are probably more valuable. Hall of Famer Ray Nitschke's ring from the same game was sold for $121,324 last year, while Packers great Fuzzy Thurston's ring hauled in $50,788 in 2011.

Kostelnik said he inherited his ring after his father's death in 1993, with his sister Laura receiving their father's Super Bowl I ring. Ron Kostelnik was a member of five NFL champion teams and two Super Bowl champion teams under Vince Lombardi. He spent eight seasons in Green Bay from 1961 to 1968, then retired after one final year with the Baltimore Colts in 1969.

On the bright side for the younger Kostelnik, he at least appears to have avoided the ire of his mother:

“I thought my mother would be quite mad at me,” Mike said. “She wasn’t. She was very supportive.”

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