Poll: would you return a class ring?

[lab rat]

In light of some recent comments regarding the return of a ring to a potential owner that can be traced-- Just wanted to get an idea of how many people feel each way.

 

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[Lowbatts]

The class ring still eludes me Labrat, but it sure seems it would be easy enough to find the owner if I come up with one. It might just make somebody's day as well.

 

[jmadden99]

Would and Did

One sunny day last July I was scuba diving with my minelab excalibur at a local fresh water lake. That day I found 13 rings, amoung them was a beautiful 2003 High school class ring. The ring had the owners name inscribed on the inside. As luck would have it, the owner of the ring lived at the first number I called in the phone book and was able to describe the ring perfectly. As it turns out, the ring was a gift from the young man's family, and he was absolutly sick when he lost it. As you can imagine, he was very excited to have it back. He offered me a reward, which I would have gladly accepted, except for the fact that he had told me that he was working at his summer job to pay for University in the fall, I just told him that returning the ring was reward enough. I had made a friend for life and it felt pretty good to do somthing nice for someone, think about that before you answer this pole. My two bits worth.

 

[bigbcbear]

Searching for the owner is just as good as finding the object. it's alway nice to see a big smile from the person who lost it. MAKES MY DAY

 

[coinshooter]

The first gold ring I ever found was a women's class ring from 20 years ago. It had been buried under a 3-4 ft layer of sand in a lagoon.
The sand was washed away and I found it. I called the registrar of the school. She tracked the lady down in another state. I sent the ring to the registrar and she mailed it to her. I recieved a nice letter thanking me and stating how she had lost the ring 20 years earlier while swimming. I was amazed since the ring looked like it had just fallen off yesterday.

 

[Don(ON)]

Would you return a class ring.

Although I have never found a class ring I have, over the past eleven years that I have been detecting, returned a dozen or more rings to people that have requested help in locating rings that they have lost. Some years ago a member of our club did find a class ring lost some 15 years previously and returned it with a local reporter and photographer present. The newpaper story stated that our club members would try to recover lost articles at no charge and gave the club president's and my phone numbers as contacts. During the following few days we had close to 30 requests, of which we subsequently recovered about 17. In most cases rewards were offered. Some members accepted, some did not.
I still get 2 or 3 calls each year, the most recent being from a local police officer who lost his wedding ring while shovelling snow. As always, I refused a reward, first of all because I am fortunate enough not to need the money and secondly to try in some small way to get some favourable publicity for our great hobby. However I have no problem whatsoever with any detectorist accepting a reward for returning a lost item - it's simply a matter of choice and individual circumstances. Finding a long-lost class ring is different than being specifically requested to find a lost ring as the owner has no way of knowing that you found it so it is simply up to the finder to decide whether or not to try to return it. Some would - some would not. I would.