- Nov 23, 2012
- 385
- 1,274
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 1
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab CTX3030
Minelab E-trac
Minelab Equinox 800
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I've been waiting for something pretty significant to make a post with and I think I finally have one. A few days ago I found a whopper of a 14K college class ring. After marveling over it and thinking how much I was going to get for the gold melt value I looked inside the band and it had a name. I knew right away that a ring of this magnitude probably was being missed by the owner and I needed to try to get them together again. The next morning I called the registrar's office at the university he'd attended and asked them if they had a student by his name in the class of 1995. Of course they said they did and that he was currently serving in the Air Force, but they wouldn't give me his contact information for privacy reasons. Being a retired Air Force veteran myself I happen to have a friend that is also retired Air Force, but he works for the Department of Defense as a contractor. I called him two days ago and asked him if he could check the Air Force global e-mail listings and see if there was a person with this name (had the middle initial, also) and probably at least a Major, but most likely a Lieutenant Colonel. He got back to me a few hours later and there was ONE person in all the Air Force with the right name and rank. We both decided it had to be him so I asked my friend to send him an e-mail and ask him if he was stationed near the town I live in during his career. Well this morning the Lt Col replied to my buddy's email and said that, yes, he had been stationed here from 2002-2004. My friend called him on the phone and asked him if he'd lost anything of value while stationed here and he described the ring to a tee. So, my friend got back in touch with me and gave me the phone number and I just talked to him a little while ago. He started his military career in 1984 as an enlisted person. After a period of time he decided to get a college degree and apply to become an officer in the Air Force, and obviously that did happen. The ring was a gift from his wife when he graduated college. While stationed at this base, his daughter was a toddler and they thought she had taken the ring from the house and gone outside with it. They searched for many hours, but were never able to find it. I found the ring under about 2 inches of dirt right next to the driveway. It appears likely, due to the location, that someone had pulled into the driveway, gotten out of the car and dropped the ring right next to the driver's door. Of course, we'll never know for sure if that's the case. Anyway, the Lt Col seemed pretty emotional about getting his ring back. He and his wife have talked about the ring over the years (it was lost in 2003) and wondered what exactly happened to it. Now they'll know. I just returned from a jeweler where I had the ring cleaned, polished and placed in a velvet box. I'll get it in the mail on Monday morning and he should have it by mid-week. Even though I sure would have been happy with the $644 it was worth in melt value, I know I've done the right thing.
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