Virginia man's long-lost class ring found after 14 years

Jan. 23 (UPI) -- A Virginia man who lost his class ring while a high school senior was reunited with his long-lost possession 14 years later.

Turner King said he was playing on the Roanoke Catholic basketball team in 2005 when the team's bus broke down near Charlottesville and he and his teammates were stranded for hours at a hotel in Charlottesville.

King said he used the restroom and took off his ring to wash his hands, only later discovering that he had left it behind.

He said he called the hotel multiple times, even months and years later, but they told him each time that no one had turned in his lost ring.

Debbie Stump, who has worked for 25 years as a director of development for Roanoke Catholic, said she took a call in October from a woman seeking to reunite a class ring with its rightful owner.

The woman told Stump she had found the ring at a store in Nellysford and decided to track down its owner. She was able to identify the school and the graduation year from engravings on the item.

Stump said she immediately knew who the ring belonged to and informed King's wife, Blake, who now works as a second grade teacher at the school.

The woman mailed the ring to Blake King, who wrapped the ring and presented it to her husband as a gift on Christmas Eve.

The Kings said the woman who found the ring said in a letter that the only reward she wanted was a donation to a local hospice that had cared for a loved one.