July 30 (UPI) — A metal detecting hobbyist and the owner of a matchmaking company in New York reunited a man with the high school class ring he lost 46 years earlier.
Dan Milovich, a lieutenant with the Buffalo Fire Department, said his doctor recommended that he try to walk more for exercise after some health issues, so he took up treasure hunting with his metal detector.
Milovich said he was searching in Buffalo last week when he unearthed a Nichols School class of 1975 ring.
He said the ring was engraved with the owner’s name, but he was unable to find any clues on social media.
“I couldn’t reach out to him for it and find him on Facebook. We tried social media. The school didn’t have an updated address for him. So we were kind of stuck, and I said, well, here’s another ring for my collection,” Milovich told WGRZ-TV.
Milovich decided to try getting some help before giving up the search entirely, and Therese Forton-Barnes joined in the hunt.
Forton-Barnes said she regularly has to perform background checks for her matchmaking business, and she put those skills to use.
“I dug around for him and couldn’t find much on him but I found his wife’s phone number,” Forton-Barnes said. “Twenty minutes later he called me back and was just enamored over this whole situation.”
The man, who now lives in Colorado and did not want to be identified, told Forton-Barnes he had lost the ring only a couple weeks after buying it in 1975.
Milovich said he was excited when Forton-Barnes told him the news.
“Absolutely gratifying when Therese came up to me yesterday and said we found the owner, it made it all worthwhile. Made my day, absolutely made my day,” he said.
Forton-Barnes said she was also happy to have been able to help.
“I love solving mysteries and I probably should’ve been a detective,” she wrote in a Facebook post.