Samsung
A woman who lost her phone that had precious images of her late husband is offering a $10,000 reward on Craigslist. Reuters

A war-time widow is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who will return her lost cell phone. The unnamed woman from Fredericksburg, Va., has posted a heart-wrenching ad on Craigslist in which she explains that the pictures on her phone were the only images she had left of her deceased husband.

She started off by simply describing the phone in the April 20 ad: “Someone took my phone. A Samsung Galaxy S3. It's white. It's only worth a few hundred bucks to you or anyone else. If you unlock the screen you will see my home screen. In the picture stands a man.”

But the grief-stricken widow, who is virtually impossible to identify, wrote about much more than just the phone itself: "That man you see, was my husband. And that night, it was the last time he ever held me.”

She then walked whoever had stolen the device through the phone: “If you open the gallery you will see a collection of photos. Mostly of him. But some of his children as well. You will also see some of his funeral. Of his burial flag, his coffin. See, that man you saw on the home screen. The one who looks so eager to head into a war zone to protect the country he loved and his family, he lost his life doing so. The only pictures I have of him are on that phone because my computer crashed after I transferred them.”

While losing a phone is annoying for most people, it felt as if she had lost her husband all over again. Even though the Fredericksburg resident hasn’t had her phone returned, she wrote an update to the Craigslist posting on Thursday in which she thanked everyone for all the kind emails she had received.

She also cleared up some of her first post, where she had claimed she didn’t have a single photo left of her husband. The widow’s in-laws provided her with new images of her late husband.

In the end, she thanked all the servicemen for their selflessness and prayed they come safe. Even though she’s received an outpour of concern, with many wanting to send her donations, the widow appreciated the offer but refused.