Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts man who found a 40-year-old class ring while out with his metal detector reunited the item with a woman who had completely forgotten it was lost.
James Gilbert said he was treasure hunting in the spring near a pond in the Burbank Hospital area of Fitchburg when he unearthed a white gold ring from Auburn High School's Class of 1980.
Gilbert said he contacted the school and officials identified the ring's engraved initials, CLB, as likely belonging to 1980 graduate Carol L. Bartlett.
The metal detecting enthusiast said he spent months trying to track down Bartlett before seeking help on a Facebook group called Metal detecting Massachusetts. He said it was only a matter of hours before another group member had located the woman, now named Carol Mulvey.
Mulvey recognized the ring, but said she had no memory of losing it. She said her best guess is that she lost the ring while doing an internship at the hospital while she was student at Fitchburg State College.
Gilbert said the discovery is now his favorite of the items he has found in his seven years of metal detecting, because he was able to return the ring to its owner.
A New Mexico woman was reunited with a precious high school keepsake this month when her 2006 yearbook from Rio Grande High School in Albuquerque turned up in a resident's yard.
The resident turned the book over to the high school with a note saying it had been dumped in their yard, and officials were able to return the tome to Analisa Brill, who said the yearbook had been among the personal items stolen from her home in a break-in nine years earlier.
