13 Lost Things Strangers Brought Home Years Later: a Dog Tag and a Wedding Ring Buried 18 Years

At twenty-two I left my wallet on a city bus with $61, my license and a library card inside. Two weeks later it came back in the mail with every dollar and a note that said, check your back pocket next time. These 13 acts of kindness brought lost things home, some of them decades after anyone expected to see them again.

“My uncle took his dog Blue to Yosemite and he lost his tag. German tourists mailed it back to us. Completely forgot I had this.”

I’m thinking about doing it myself. It was mailed to my uncle and he said he’d do it but I’m not sure he ever did lol. He’s rather forgetful.

Edit: I emailed them yesterday. Currently waiting patiently for a response.

I’m rather nervous about writing emails/letters. I hope it’s not too late and they remember.

Social anxiety doesn’t produce the most logical thoughts lol.

We think he’s a pit mix.

“I lost my wallet. These boys found it and wouldn’t accept any reward. People are good!”

It was a really special wallet. I didn’t even care about the money.

I’m still in awe of their awesomeness!

They did agree to take a sand castle class! I’m a sand sculptor and can’t wait to teach them some cool stuff.

I made sure their mum knew she had raised em right!

They are going to be awesome adults!!!

Gentlemen for sure

I am the person on the left and am a girl! Just bad at titles!!!

Riley and a friend named Charlie were metal detecting around an old house when they dug up a gold class ring. A lawn mower had chewed it up at some point, but the stone survived, and so did a tiny cheerleading symbol behind it. The school helped them find the owner. When they met, she told them how she had lost it: in 1985, in her best friend’s yard.

“These moments are what it’s all about!”

“This happened this morning!”

Found my first gold ring at the local park!! It’s a 1985 10k class ring from my local high-school. I’ve only been detecting for a few weeks and feel extremely lucky to have gold under my belt already. Persistence pays off.

It does have initials engraved on the inside, I will try to track down the owner!

“Class ring owner FOUND!!”

After a few weeks of searching I’m glad to update you all! I found the owner of the 1985 class ring. She now lives out of state but I’m am shipping it to her today! Thank you all for the help and the kind words and motivation. She is beyond excited seeing as she will have her ring for her 40th reunion!! Today is a good day!!

I had it posted in a Facebook group and one of her friends sent it to her remembering that she had lost hers. It has her initials on it. She lost it not long after graduating. Said she was out one weekend with all her friends cruising hotrods and doing what teenagers did in the 80s when she lost it. She didn’t remember exactly where she lost it.

“Update on the gold wedding ring I’ve found in my yard”

So about 20 days ago I bought my first metal detector and tried it out in my backyard. I got a strong signal from the detector and dug up a gold ring. It was quite deep underground. It also had the two letters “KM” engraved.

My idea was that my landlord’s wife could have lost the ring when they used to live here 13 years ago. After 20 long days of waiting for them to return, they finally called me today and I asked them to come over. We had some coffee and I told them about my new hobby: metal detecting.

I asked if they had lost jewelry in their yard when they used to live here and my landlord’s wife immediately said yes. She lost her gold wedding ring when she was pregnant with their first child 18 years ago and were in the process of moving into a bigger home.

I handed her the ring and she could not believe her eyes. And “KM” are her own initials. To see their surprised faces and how happy the ring made them absolutely made my day.

“Final class ring update/conclusion”

Ended up finding this class ring while metal detecting at a Florida beach on February 23rd. Inside were initials and the school name on the outside. I searched online and found two schools with that name. I ended up calling both schools and again, no student with the same initials.

Finally, about to give up, I posted the story and ring to Facebook and Reddit. A Reddit user by the name of u/TieDyeSquirrel commented and let me know there was a third smaller school with the same name in New York.

I called them up and the secretary flipped through the yearbook for me. She ended up finding a student that matched the initials and knew the mother, saying they were good friends. She passed my info to the mom, and the mom called me.

After she explained some details about how it was lost, I was confident I had found the owner. Within a week it was shipped out and happily returned to its owner back in New York. They sent me a very nice thank you letter in return.

“Lost my wallet. Someone paid for postage and mailed it back to me. Even left the cash.”

No return address, postmark is from Portland, Oregon. Included the note and didn’t touch any of the cards, or the $41.

I had hoped there were still people in the world like this but wasn’t sure.

The note says:

“Hello, This was found in a rest stop parking lot. It’s the worst feeling losing your wallet. Hope this brightens up your day. At the end of the day, kindness matters to everyone.

-Anonymos”

I’ve thought of that “look for the helpers” quote a lot over the last few years.

“Helped return a wallet with $900 in it”

I work in a parking structure and a couple weeks ago, one of my guys let me know that he had been given a wallet that a guest had found next to a car.

My boss gave me this tonight, she has my name wrong but who cares. Definitely made me smile and on Sunday I’m bringing $50 to the guy that was originally on lookout for her.

“Dear Alyssa,

I wanted to personally write and express my deep gratitude for your finding my wallet in the parking structure and ensuring it’s safe transfer to security. May God bless you for your honesty, kindness, and willingness to be a source of good in this world. I’m enclosing a small token of gratitude.

Gratefully, Susan”

Honestly? I’m way more excited about the card than the money. You find things while working in parking lots. I’ve returned credit cards, wallets, keys, etc. I’ve never received news that it got returned.

It’s like when you give a stranger directions and then spend the afternoon hoping they got there. The reward is knowing everything went right.

“Owner found, ring returned!”

I’ve seen stories on here of people finding the owners of class rings. There is no name on this ring just the initials RS. So, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find the owner.

I went to classmates, found the 1973 yearbook and there was only one female with the initials RS, found her on Facebook, messaged her and she is going to meet me today to pick up her lost ring. YAY!

I think I am more excited than she is. For real. It’s been a dream of mine since I got my metal detector.

Update: She came and picked it up at the pharmacy I worked at. She was very grateful and her husband was so kind. He said that when he proposed to her, he used her class ring to get the size of the engagement ring. He knew her class ring fit just over the tip of his pinky just like I have it in the picture.

“Lost my purse 2 weeks ago on the train home from London. I was absolutely gutted. I received a letter yesterday that made me do a little cry.”

They certainly are! I was absolutely gutted as that purse has travelled everywhere with me & it was a gift from my husband. I’ve emailed the lovely lady asking her if there is anything I can do in return!

I sent her a big bunch of flowers as a personal thank you for being a lovely lady, she got it and she loved them!

“Found and returned wedding band and engagement ring. 48 hours in the surf before I searched.”

Total happenstance. I saw the post on FB about a couple losing their rings and knew I would be out that way today. About an hour from my place. Threw my detector in the van just in case I could stop on my way back from a gig.

Less than an hour on the beach and found both. Super pumped to be able to get em back to them. They were sure they were gone. They were able to draw a circle on google maps satellite for me. Found both within 10 feet of each other on the shell line.

Really was! I was with my wife, daughter, and father-in-law. I told em we had to stop by the beach on the way home from a music gig to do a quick sweep for some strangers. I’m glad they didn’t mind! They were as blown away as I was.

8 holes, 2 rings, and a very happy couple. Luck is a lady!

They paid off the detector I had no business buying with my financial situation. Beyond grateful.

The ring went into the sea off Barbados in 1977 and reached Canada the night before its owner’s 83rd birthday. The diver who found it is younger than the time it spent underwater. Neither of them needed to know the other for it to work.