7 Amazing Stories of Lost and Re-Found Wedding Rings

If you’re married, you’ve almost certainly misplaced your wedding ring at one place or another and even if you’ve never actually lost it, you probably know someone else who has. After all, a little band of gold or platinum is pretty easy to lose track of, even if it is important to hold on to. But while many people lose their rings, it’s pretty rare to actually find them again. Even so, it has been known to happen. Here are some of the most amazing stories of people who have lost their wedding or engagement rings, only to find them again. Image Via Jason Pier in DC [Flickr]

Hidden in Some Weeds

Anthea Capewell lost her wedding ring and engagement ring in 1976, when they fell off her finger as she closed her garden gate. After a long and thorough search, she and her husband could only find the engagement ring. Eight years later, the couple moved out of the house, which is why it was even more amazing that 33 years after the ring was lost, Anthea received a call from her old neighbor who claimed to have found the ring. The neighbors discovered the ring buried in some weeds underneath a hedge that was shared by the two homes. The discovery was such a pleasant surprise for the couple that Anthea and her husband immediately decided to renew their wedding vows in the next year.

In An Old Toilet

In 1974, a year after Donna Claver was married, the pregnant woman set her engagement ring on the tank lid of her toilet while she put lotion on. Unfortunately, the ring slipped into the bowl. Despite Donna and husband Terry’s best efforts, including unbolting the toilet and shaking it vigorously, the ring was stuck inside the hole at the bottom of the bowl and couldn’t be removed. Because the couple was too poor to afford a new toilet, they eventually gave up and put the fixture back in place, expecting to never retrieve their lost ring. As the years went by, the Clavers moved out of the home and it was sold over and over, but just last year, Terry happened to be roofing a house across the street from his old home when he noticed the new owners carrying the toilet to the trash. Remembering his wife’s lost ring, Terry climbed off the roof and told the gentlemen he’d be happy to throw the toilet away for them. He then took the fixture to his shop and broke it with a sledgehammer. Finally, the ring was free. Amazingly, after a little cleaning, the ring still looked brand new 36 years later.

In a Dog Food Bag

Toy surprises are usually reserved for cereals and Cracker Jack boxes, that’s why when Krista Berg discovered a man’s wedding ring in the bag of NutroMax she bought for her pup Otto, she figured it wasn’t meant as a bonus gift. Whereas most people would probably invoke the law of finder’s keepers, Krista decided to call around. When no one at the dog food plant had lost their ring, she tried calling the store where she bought the food and got in touch with Mike Stoddard, the rightful owner of the wedding ring. Mike was glad that Krista found his ring and not someone else, noting, "most people would just keep it.”

In a Garbage Truck

When 77 year-old Bridget Pericolo put her wedding and engagement rings into a Dixie cup for safe keeping, she certainly didn’t expect the adventure that followed. It all started when her husband thought the cup was trash and tossed it away with the rest of the garbage. Unfortunately, by that time, the local trash truck had already come by and collected the couple’s garbage bags. Bridget immediately called the local sanitation department, only to have the supervisor tell her that the truck couldn’t be stopped until the end of their route.

At the end of the day, Bridget’s husband Angelo met up with the two drivers of the truck and sifted through the entire truck of garbage, over ten tons worth, until they discovered the bag from the Pericolo’s house. After about 45 minutes of searching, Angelo returned to his wife of 55 years with a smile on his face and a ring in his hand.

On a Carrot

Lena Pahlsson was in the middle of an epic baking session, just before Christmas of 1995, when she removed her ring and placed it on the kitchen counter. At some point during the day, the ring disappeared and Lena and her husband, Ola, looked everywhere for the lost jewelry item. When they remodeled their kitchen a few years later, they even took the opportunity to search behind all the appliances and under the floorboards to no avail. Finally, the couple gave up hope on ever finding the ring. Sixteen years after the ring disappeared, Lena was outside, pulling up the last of the carrots in her garden when she noticed something strange about one of the carrots. The tiny vegetable had a strange thing wrapped around it. When she looked a little closer, Lena realized the carrot had grown inside of her wedding band. After a quick cleaning, the white gold band adorned with diamonds looks as good as new again. While no one knows for sure how the ring ended up in the garden, Ola has a few theories. “We thought maybe it had fallen in to the compostable food bin. Perhaps it ended up in compost that was spread over the vegetable patch later,” he said. Alternatively, he has speculated that maybe the family’s sheep, known for sneaking in and munching on the family’s kitchen scraps, had a hand in the disappearance.

At the Bottom of Some Sea Baths

The Dawn Fraser Baths are a tidal flow salt water pool in Australia, unlike normal pools, this means these baths are filled with salt water and silt, making it hard to find anything lost in the bottom. Fortunately for Joanne Norman, who lost her engagement ring while playing water polo at the baths, scuba diver Brad Lovell was available for hire. She tried to find the ring herself, but noted, “the bottom of the ocean pool was covered in silt and constantly moving. We tried to find it but with the (fading) light we were forced to give up.” Joanne tried hiring a few local salvage divers to look for the ring, but she had no luck until she got in touch with Mr. Lovell. That’s because Brad incorporates a metal detector into his salvage diving to help him find specific items underwater. Brad got the idea for his business as he used a metal detector on the beach and was often interrupted by divers and swimmers asking him to help them find something they lost in the shallows. His idea to combine the practice with scuba diving has proven quite fruitful as he has since been hired to find a number of items lost under the ocean’s surface including the wedding ring of world surfing champion Layne Beachley. “The gratification I feel when reuniting people with a lost engagement or wedding ring is indescribable,” he says.

In the Mud of A Dirty Harbor

Just like Joanne Norman, ecologist Aleki Taumoepeau lost his rings in murky ocean water. In Taumoepeau’s case, he was searching the waters of New Zealand for invasive plant species. When the ring disappeared in water ten feet deep, Aleki tossed his anchor overboard to help him mark the spot. He recorded the area and then returned to his wife of three years who offered to buy him a new ring. "I just said 'No, I'll find it,'" he said. Three months later, he returned to the location and searched for the ring –to no avail. He then returned again, over a year later, and dared to dive into the freezing waters during the area’s winter season. Finally, he spotted his old anchor and then immediately saw the ring. "I couldn't believe that I could see the ring so perfectly," he said, "the whole top surface of the ring was glowing." As you may have guessed, Aleki’s ability to spot a “glowing” ring in the normally murky waters of New Zealand has earned him a new nickname amongst his friends…that’s right, he’s now the “Lord of the Ring.” Image Via tata_aka_T [Flickr] Have any of you lost your wedding rings? Did you end up finding them again? If so, do you have a tale that can rival these stories?


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My mom used to take off her wedding ring when she was doing chores. Once she came to visit for a couple of months and she put her wedding ring (of 48 years) in a decorative bowl. As she was dusting her room, she put some dry leafs and lint she picked up from the floor in the same bowl. As she finished cleaning up her room, she opened the patio door and emptied the bowl (was winter time). After a few days she realized she doesn't have her wedding ring. Tracing back her steps, the only thing she could think of was that she threw it out with the lint in the bowl. She started panicking, being afraid that she'll never find it again. Lots of snow has snowed since the "incident" so there was no way to find the ring in case it was still in the backyard. So I went to Canadian Tire, bought a metal detector device and 30 minutes later found my mom's ring. Since then, my parents had their 50 year anniversary and both still have their wedding rings
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My husband was deploying to the middle east from Georgia, his unit was going through Iceland, where we had lived for three years. He works aircraft maintenance and puts his ring on his line badge around his neck. He lost both without realizing it. I got a call from security forces that they found the ring and I.D. and had tracked us back to the base in Georgia. They had to destroy the I.D. for security reasons but offered to mail back the ring. I got the box a few weeks later and when I opened it I realized how they had found it. It was flat!! They never did tell me that it was located because an airplane ran over it! Thankfully, although it was squished, all 5 little diamonds were still intact. He ended up getting a new ring when he got home from overseas and we still have the squished one.
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Not a wedding ring, but a ring I always wear that I got on vacation in Mexico. I was at work and put on lotion, put on too much, took my ring off to wipe it off with a tissue and set it down to help a customer. My co-worker that day threw it away, and by the time I'd remembered, the trash had already been taken out. So I got to go dumpster diving. That was fun, but I found it!
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Not a wedding ring but i lost my class ring in the winter of 1985. Then in 1993 i met a girl in a nightclub, she was in a class of the following year and she had found it and kept it in a medallion every day for 8 years.. She had never met me or knew who i was (at the time, the area around the school was booming with new houses and i had gone to another school by then..), i was reunited with this cheap silver ring that meant so much to someone, things begun to get interesting.. Then in the same night, i went to toilet and after i'd washed my hands there were no towels left. So i shaked my hands dry but didn't notice that the ring flew away.. I tried to look at it later but couldn't find it..

So i lost a girl and a ring that day, couldn't dare to return to her having lost the ring again so soon... But i fear for the worst.. what if it's clinging to some guys neck now.. shudder the future....
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My mom passed away a few years ago, and as a momento, I found (and kept) her old class ring from high school. I wore it on my pinky (the only finger it would fit on -- and it was still loose!), and it was constantly falling off. It fell off my finger my first semester in college, but I managed to find it in the bottom of my backpack (after freaking out the entire day). Then, in the middle of my second semester, it fell off again. This time while the ground was covered in snow (with more constantly falling on top). I retraced my steps about 50 times that day (and into the night), and tore my dorm room apart. I still haven't found it, and I can't shake this notion of one of the creepy townies wearing it on their finger like it was their's....
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