For the last 13 years, Luke Berube has been scuba diving in shallow lakes and ponds in Massachusetts. He’s found valuable coins, platinum jewelry and even a shoe buckle from the mid-1700s.
But during a recent dive, he found a very special treasure – a high school class ring from 1960, with the initials WJW etched inside.
Luke did some detective work and found that the ring was from a small high school in South Boston that had been closed in 2009. He then put the word out through a private Facebook page for alumni that he had the ring, along with his contact information. The 77 year old whose ring it was was contacted--his daughter was looking at the FB page and contacted Berube, the scuba diver. It turns out, William Joseph Wadel, whose ring it was, had given the ring to his then high school girlfriend, who, unbeknownst to him, had LOST it! Berube, who believes he’s found more than 400 rings underwater, was happy to find this ring and make sure that the story behind it had a happy ending.
Mr. Wadel messaged Berube later saying he had clearly not learned his lesson--as soon as he got the ring back, he promptly gave it to another woman--his wife of 50 years!