Utah man reunited with class ring lost in Germany after 38 years

May 7 (UPI) -- A Utah man who lost his high school class ring in Germany in 1982 was reunited with the ring thanks to a man who found it on a beach in the United States.

Scott Sanders said he accidentally left his ring on top of a paper towel dispenser in Bitburg, Germany, in 1982, and he never expected to see the ring again.

Dan Thomander said he found the ring in the sand at a park in New Jersey or New York nearly 30 years ago. He said his father-in-law kept the ring in a safe for decades before giving it back to him and inspiring him to attempt to find its original owner.

Thomander said his online research revealed Sanders' high school had put all of their old yearbooks online, making it easy for him to determine the identity of the ring's owner. He searched for Sanders' current location and discovered he lives in Utah -- only 5 miles from where Thomander's son lives.

Sanders was reunited with his long-lost ring Monday.

A Maine woman who lost her then-boyfriend's class ring in 1973 said the ring took a similar globe-trotting adventure before returning to her. Debra McKenna, 63, said she left the ring in a bathroom at a department store and the ring turned up 47 years later buried in a park in Finland.