Ring Lost In Middleboro Pond Returned To Owner 45 Years Later

WEYMOUTH (CBS) - It's been lost for 45 years, but now, against all odds, a college ring is back on its rightful finger. It's a story of coincidences, kindness and plain good luck, and it all starts in 1973.

"I was water-skiing in a pond in Middleboro," remembers Glenn Pelrine of Weymouth. Glenn had graduated from the Franklin Institute two years earlier.

On that day, "The tow rope kind of pulled out of my hand and wheeew," he says. His prized college ring was gone.

"I immediately knew I lost the ring," he says. "Fast forward 45 years, I get a Facebook message." The note from someone named Maria said; "We believe we've found your ring, and she told me she lives in Middleboro. Well I knew that she had found my ring."

And Maria sent photos of the gold ring. Her boyfriend pulled it out of the muck after finding it with a metal detector. "It was disgusting," says Glenn. But they were able to see Glenn's name engraved inside the ring and with Glenn's luck continuing, it turns out that Maria works at the Gregory Scot jewelry store in Middleboro.

In the next message she told Glenn; "I'm going to take the ring to the jewelry store, and we're going to professionally clean it for you," Glenn tells us.

Then new photos arrived. "She sends me pictures of the ring looking beautiful. I got to the point where I was starting to get excited about having this ring back. I was almost like a kid at Christmastime," Glenn says.

Today the ring is back where it belongs. "I like having it back. I'm going to wear it all the time. I guess that's why they call it precious metal," Glenn says, laughing.

As for the lake where the ring was first lost and then found, well, none of the people involved will say which lake it was. They think it's their lucky lake and are keeping the name to themselves.