PETERSBURG, Ind. (WEHT) — Michaela Keller from Jasper is once again wearing her long-lost Pike Central High School class ring.
Sunday marked the first time she was able to lie eyes on it and wear it since she lost it at Prides Creek Park back on July 11, 2010.
“I tried to not be angry, but I was more sad than anything because I thought I would never see it again,” Keller said. “I mean that was my biggest thing — I would never see it again, and that I was silly enough to wear it and lose it.”
A friend jokingly pushed Keller in the lake between her freshman and sophomore year.
That’s when the ring went flying off her finger, landing in the water and remained missing for 13 years.
Keller only had the ring for two weeks before it went missing.
Brian Hanson — who documents finding lost treasures with a metal detector for his “B Higgles” YouTube channel — discovered the ring in July near one of the poles in the lake.
He eventually contacted Keller via Facebook and with the help from one of his internet fans sending in letters to Keller.
“It was very touching to know somebody would actually — if they found something like that they would return it instead of just keeping it and saying, ‘Oh, I found six class rings,'” Keller said. “Instead of having that collection, they went to go find the owner because it’s more meaningful to the original owner.”
During the summer, Hanson has found 800 pieces of metal on the beach at Prides Creek alone.
He says returning the ring was not only a priceless feeling, but he says it was the right thing to do.
“There is no better feeling. There really isn’t,” Hanson said. “Money can’t buy that kind of feeling, and class rings I think are something really, really special.”
Looking back, the experience of losing something memorable like a class ring is one Keller doesn’t want for any of her three children.
“I’m hoping that my kids will get class rings and they’ll never lose it — but if they do — that they’ll get it returned,” Keller said.
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