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“I dug up a treasure — a 1983 class ring from Wardlaw+Hartridge school, made of 10 karat gold with a clear stone,” he said.
After meticulously cleaning the ring, Cox was even more surprised to find an engravement on the inside of the band and immediately wondered if he could reunite it with its original owner.
“With the school’s name, graduation year and the owner’s name there was no mystery around who the ring originally belonged to,” Cox said. “But making contact with the owner — who I will call Ms. D — was the real challenge.”
Cox, an Account Executive at NICE Actimize Inc., first reached out to the Edison private school’s alumni association via email to explain his unique mission.
When he didn’t hear back for several weeks, he took his search to Facebook but ran into another obstacle due to the name’s commonality.
“Her name is rather common and I couldn’t find her specific profile,” he said.
Still, Cox didn’t give up hope — he was eventually able to make contact with a friend of Ms. D who he says was “instrumental” in his ultimate goal of reuniting the ring with its owner.
At long last, Ms. D contacted Cox and explained the reasoning behind her delayed response.
“A medical setback had left Ms. D unable to talk on the phone, but fortunately she can still type,” said Cox.
After discussing the circumstances surrounding his discovery, Ms. D provided Cox with her mailing address. When she asked how much it would cost her to ship, Cox kindly responded, “zero dollars,” adding that he was “happy to do this” since he had already dug up more than $100 in modern coins so far this year.
Cox was initially hesitant to ship the ring via UPS, but “I did it anyway,” he said.
In a few short days, Ms. D confirmed to Cox that she received the ring and that it was, in fact, hers.
“I breathed a sigh of relief — the ring was reunited with its owner after almost 40 years in the ground!” he said.
Ms. D took to Facebook to personally thank Cox for his diligence and generosity.
“Thank you #BrianCox,” she writes.
Scroll down to view more photos of the ring — as well as a screenshot of Ms. D’s grateful response on Facebook.
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