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Courtesy of Brent Aguirre
The class ring that Brent Aguirre lost more than 45 years ago.
Brent Aguirre hasn't been on Facebook long, but he's already skeptical of emails from strangers. So when he got a unusual message a few months ago from a couple he didn't know, the Air Force employee just ignored it.
"They said they had something I might be interested in," Aguirre told msnbc.com from his home in Ogden, Utah. “You don't know whether you can trust things like that."
Fortunately, the couple didn't give up. "About three weeks later they emailed back and told me they had a class ring with my name on it.”
Aguirre, 63, had long given up hope that he would ever be reunited with the keepsake, a gift from his parents more than 45 years ago during his senior year. The 1966 graduate of Bonneville High School had managed to wear the ring for only about six months before losing it.
“It was shocking,” said the Vietnam war veteran. “I had written that thing off years ago.”
He had always thought the ring, which is gold with a blue stone in the middle, was at the bottom of the Pineview Reservoir, a popular hangout then among teens, just east of Ogden. He remembers his mom was especially disappointed when he lost it.
“Mom and dad spent good money on it,” he said. “It’s a beautiful ring.”
Courtesy of Brent Aguirre
Brent Aguirre lost his class ring more than 45 years ago and was thrilled when a Sandy, Utah, couple returned it to him.
That’s exactly what John and Nancy Boswell thought too, when they found the ring while cleaning out a desk drawer in their Sandy, Utah, home last fall. Engraved with Brent Aguirre’s name on the inside, they set out to find its owner, finally making the connection via Facebook.
“We wanted to give it to him personally, so we wrote him a note,” John Boswell told msnbc.com. The retired admissions director for the University of Utah can’t remember exactly where or when he found the keepsake, but believes he picked it up from the grass while walking into a high school one day.
He didn’t think about it again, until seeing the ring in the drawer last fall.
The Friday before New Year’s, after several more emails and phone calls, the Boswells were able to hand deliver the ring to Aguirre at a restaurant in St. George.
“It was extremely satisfying,” Boswell said. “He was thrilled to get it back.”
The ring no longer fits on Aguirre’s finger, but he doesn’t mind. He just wishes his mother was around to enjoy the moment with him. “She’d probably be more excited than me,” he said. “She was disappointed when I lost it.”
Aguirre’s twin sister, however, is trying to make sure he doesn't lose it again. “She wants to re-size it for me for my birthday, which is next month,” he said.
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Leave a Comment:
Aww, cool story! A Friday feel gooder.
Yeah, about a thief that finally gave up on the loot he hoarded 45 years ago.
JLM - your being ridiculous and apparently you have had too much to drink - putting you in a "fighting" mood. Go to bed and sober up. It would also be nice if you got up on the "right" side of the bed this morning!
If the "finder" had ill intentions then he would have just pawned the darn ring. Or sold it for the gold. Information was readily available to the public 45 years ago!
I bought my ring in 1973 for $37.50. It would of been $32.50 but I had the stone cut that cost $5.00 extra. All the gold it would of cost at least $1,000 at todays prices.
JLM-268998, clearly you did not read the article carefully. Then finder of the ring is an Admissions Director for a university. He found it "walking into a high school" NOT while he was in high school. It likely bcame covered in the grass many years ago, only to be uncovered later.
A very nice story about very kind people. :)
He didn't make any attempt to return it when he found it; he put it in a drawer and only came across it many years later. So much longer, in fact, that he can't remember when it was. A class ring on a high school lawn with a name on it... it wouldn't be rocket science to find the owner.
There was no Facebook back then though
They all met at a restaurant to give the ring back..sure hope Mr. Aguirre at least treated them to a meal there.
He should have chastised them for stealing it in the first place. It's not like the guy found it along an interstate; it was a class ring in a high school field with a name on it. He could have returned it long ago, but obviously didn't intend to. He deprived the guy of 45 years of enjoyment. The fact that he carelessly hoarded it, came across it ages hence, and figured he might as well return it now does not hardly even qualify for gratitude. It was probably just his wife's idea to return it at all.
awww...why'd you have to go and jerk this up
JLM - calm down - take some Tylenol and lighten up. No one "stole" anything. Remember who lost his ring to begin with. You should be happy - JUST LIKE HE IS - that the ring re-appeared in his lifetime.
You're being petty and unforgiving. I bet you're just an unhappy soul....try church or meditation or self-help books.....those might just work for your terrible attitude.
Therapy works as well.
Have a great day, sunshine!!! :)
I am going to conclude that you, JLM are just trying to get some attention. Any comment to get someone to respond? How sad.
Cool!
Glad to see there are still some good people in this hectic world. If only we'd see these stories more often than political bile or murders, but that's only wishful thinking...
Face it there are still some good hearted people left in this sick American society!!! and a welcome Home Brent thanks for serving America!
I hope that someday, I get a call like this. I lost my class ring to a burglar last year. He's on trial now for the burglary, but my jewelry is gone for good.
Janelle, I hope you will check pawn shops, collectible shops, and every place you can think of that might deal in second-hand jewelry. I do hope you find your belongings soon. During the trial you might be able to learn what place or individual this creep used to sell or hide the stolen goods. I wish you the best, and you have my sympathy.
The return of the ring went down a lot like this ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kngBtoylIVM
Nice story. Kinda makes me wonder why the original guy didn't find the owner when he first found it on the grass all those many years ago. But, at least it made it back, eh?
No kidding. It was a class ring with a year and a name on it. It wouldn't be too hard to have located the owner (or his parents) back then. He was a thief who carelessly forgot about his loot and deprived the owner of a valuable for 45 years.
Again, JLM, neither you, nor I, know the whole story about this, however, you're frivolous ranting, nasty comments, and unfounded and unfair convictions of the "finding" parties only detract from your credibility (if any) in the comments that you are posting. IE - Jeez - back up and chill out hot head!
Hope your Saturday turns out to be fun and fulfilling! Have a great weekend!
It's a gold ring. It had value. He could just as easily have dropped it off at the school's office, as a lost item, and they'd probably be able to locate an owner fairly easily. But he kept it. When you find lost jewelry, does it end up in a desk drawer? As for myself I return things to the nearest Lost & Found, which is the right thing to do. And fairly common.
Glad he got it back. I lost mine in the bathroom at high school just months after getting it, too. No idea why someone would want to steal a class ring! I don't even think mine was that valuable to anyone but me.
Go Bonneville High!!..my pops was class of 76!!..Washington Terrace Baby!!
Candy coat this if you want to , but if I found a high school ring, outside of a high school, ESPECIALLY with the school name and the students name on it, take it inside, and get the office involved. SCHOOLS HAVE LOST AND FOUNDS. This is not a warm and fuzzy story, its something that should have happened 45 years ago. Glad he got it back, but if something of value is not yours, return it, or try to find the owner. Most of us were raised that way back then. The school would have called his parents even if the student had moved away. This story has another big "What if". What if Brent didn't survive the Nam? His folks would have thought a great deal of that ring, as it is, he did survive, and got his ring back. Coming from a junk drawer, this is not a miracle, is a huge procrastination or over site at best. Now if the story went... Divers find ring in the bottom of the lake, or class ring turns up in field 45 years later... that would make this story a miracle. A high school sweetheart dying of cancer wanting to return the ring as a bucket list wish would be a warm and fuzzy tear jerker too.
However, a "Oh, I found it near the school it was lost at, but put off trying to make the effort to get it back for one reason or another, and 45 years later found it in my desk drawer" story, don't make you a hero in my book. With two good sources of where it came from and who it belonged to and it bounced around in desk drawer all these years, it wasn't lost for 45 year's, it was found 45 years ago as the story reads and leads us to believe... it just wasn't returned. I hope I missed something here. Otherwise, wow... someone made this story public.
Like I said... I really hope I missed something here. Please tell me this is all wrong. I must be missing something here. No body brags about putting off returning an obviously lost item of value for a month, much less 45 years... Do they? I might be being a butt here, but what was Mr. Boswells hurry here?
Student name in ring+name of school and year graduated on ring= why not get it back to the owner ASAP.
The article doesn't say the guy found it 45 years ago...it says he thinks he found it walking into *a* high school. He was a college admissions director, remember? So he probably walked into a lot of high schools. I didn't get the impression that he was a high school student when that happened. He might have found the ring five years ago.
It would have been nice if he had immediately started tracking down the owner, but since that didn't happen, at least he put forth the effort eventually. I'm sure everyone who reads this has put off some task that that would have benefited another person, at least briefly.
I, too, lost(really stolen) my High School ring, 1978 in Brownsville, Texas...it was my Senior Ring from Ursuline Academy in Dallas, with the initials PGR inside....wish it could be found!
Stop pooh-poohing over a happy event. The guy got his ring back and that's all the really matters here. Someone needs to tell him that if his ring was made by Balfour, they'll still re-size it for him for FREE, he'll have to pay to have it shipped there and back. He needs to go to a local jewelry store that sells class rings in the town he lives in. They'll know what to do to get it sized. I did this with my Balfour high school class ring 25 years after I graduated.
I lost my ring in January 1977, having been a senior at Bradwell Institute in Hinesville GA at the time. It was similar to Mr. Aguirre's... gold, blue starburst sapphire. Super Spirit, Class of '77. Had George Coffey engraved on the inside. I always thought it'd come back to me, but it was probably melted down years ago. Awfully cool Mr. Aguirre got his back.
The retired admissions director for the University of Utah can’t remember exactly where or when he found the keepsake, but believes he picked it up from the grass while walking into a high school one day.
Yes it's a happy event, but HEL-lo, the guy finds it on a high school lawn AS he's walking in, and does not submit it to the front desk? There is more to this story- perhaps the retired man has dementia, and his wife is helping him sort his life out. A college admissions director would KNOW how important this was to a HS kid and his parents- should have taken care of this years ago. And no, I'm not miserable- Caesar treats me very well.
There are a lot of thieves out there stealing jew lery. They try to deny it when they are caught. Be careful with your valuables. They may be the only thing you have of value.