There was a fellow in our club who found 1 yr. old class ring, near his home, that was from the same high school that his daughter was attending. He took it home and showed his family. The daughter looked up the initials in her yearbook, and says "oh, I know that girl, she lives just down the street!". So my friend calls their phone #, but only gets a voicemail. He leaves a message to the effect: "I've found your class ring. If you want it back, call me at this number and we'll discuss it".
He thought nothing more of the matter. Later that night, they sat down to dinner. There was a knock at the door. Guess who it was?? the POLICE! Turns out the ring had been one of many items stolen during a home burglary a few weeks earlier. The people who had received the phone message on their machine took it as some sort of extortion suggestion
I guess the thief, when he had been leaving the residence, must've lost it when crossing the school yard, for my friend to find a few weeks later. How was my friend to know? He figured it was a fumble-fingers loss.
Anyhow, there was a long song and dance discussion with the police. My friend tried to explain that he'd found it with a metal detector (of course, he was getting the "oh SHHUUURRE" stares by the cops). In the end, the ring was given to the cops, who presumably returned it to the girl. My friend never got so much as a thank you, no-thank-you, or kiss my *ss from the family. He vowed never again to attempt to return a class ring again (this was back in the early '80s, when a gold class ring was worth over $100 in scrap gold. Not a pittance in early '80s dollar buying value)
I have another friend who has found over 100 class rings on the beaches of So. California. I asked him once "do you ever try to return the rings?" He quickly chimed "no". His reasoning was the same. He's met with people who hang up, because they think it's a prank. Or one guy who shows up at his house, grabs the ring with a scowl, and tromps off with not a word, etc.....
Think of it: Most of the time, when someone looses their class ring, they don't think "It must've slipped off my finger", but instead think "where did I leave it?" This is especially true of women who notoriously leave their rings by the sink when they wash their hands. Then later, when it turns up missing, they think "I must've left it in the bathroom when I washed my hands last", when in fact, it flew off their fingers when they were playing frisbee (or whatever). So if they file a police report, do you think they say "lost because I was a dummy" or "possibly stolen"? Of course they think it was stolen. Heck, even if they KNOW they lost it, they assume whoever finds it, must, because it is sitting there, turn it in to lost and found, lest it NOW be "stolen". So you come along and find it, and think you're a "hero"?
You see the psychology at work here? This has caused many folks to not even look at the initials inside class rings :P
AA
