Published on February 1st, 2011 | by Alan Abrahamson

Tristan Gale Geisler gets her medal back

Police called Tristan Gale Geisler Tuesday with good news.

The gold medal that she had won in skeleton at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games? That had been stolen just a few days ago from her house in Oceanside, Calif.?

They had found it.

Oceanside police, in executing two search warrants Tuesday, recovered the medal and other stolen property, including two assault rifles.

Police also said they took three men into custody. Police declined to provide further details.

The medal, along with computers and other things, were stolen last Wednesday from the house that Geisler shares with her U.S. Marine Corps helicopter pilot husband, Jon.

Also originally believed stolen was her engagement ring. The Geislers now believe thieves dropped the ring while hurrying to make a get-away; it turned up inside the house, she said late Tuesday night.

When police found the medal on Tuesday, she said, they discovered that the ribbon originally attached to it had been cut. No problem, she said — she has a back-up.

Tristan and Jon Geisler were effusive in their praise of the lead detective on their case, Doug Baxter.

“He was so happy on the phone to tell me this,” she said, adding, “That made me so much more excited.”

It’s why, she said, she has no choice but to comply with the detective’s directive. After keeping the medal for so long in a sock in a junk drawer, it’s now going to a safety-deposit box.

She said, “I promised him I wouldn’t make him go through this again.”