Updated at 7:06 a.m., Monday, February 19, 2007
20 years later, ring lost in Pacific Ocean returned
Associated Press
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — If you lose your class ring swimming in the Pacific Ocean, the odds of finding it aren't exactly high — especially more than 20 years later.Apparently, suburban Philadelphia resident James Costantini has some kind of luck.
His parents recently presented him with his long-lost 1984 class ring from William Tenant High School. He had lost it swimming off the coast of Hawai'i while on vacation with his family when he was 18 — more than 20 years ago.
A California man found it a year later while snorkeling off Maui and kept it as a souvenir. The finder, Phil Winter, says the topaz ring sat in his wife's jewelry box until recently, when his daughter saw it and wanted to wear it.
Winter decided that he should try to track down the owner and did so with the help of one of his daughter's teachers. The ring was returned in a box from a Maui jeweler, arriving at the Upper Southampton Township home of Costantini's parents on Saturday.
"I thought a fish ate it," said Costantini, now 41.
