Man Finds Late Father’s Wedding Ring Nearly 50 Years After It Went Missing

John Arnett lost his wedding ring nearly 50 years ago while washing his car outside his family’s Ohio home. Decades later, his son Jeff returned to the home and used a metal detector to locate the ring.

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John Arnett lost his wedding ring nearly 50 years ago while washing his car outside his family’s Ohio home

Decades later, his son Jeff returned to the home and used a metal detector to locate the ring

“He’d been dead for 13 and a half years. It was almost like touching him one last time,” Jeff said

Decades after a family heirloom disappeared, a man has recovered his late father’s lost wedding ring.

Sometime between 1977 and 1982, John Arnett lost his wedding ring while he was washing his car in his family’s front yard in Swanton, Ohio, WTOL 11 reported. Despite diligent search efforts, the precious piece from his wedding to his wife, Carol, seemed to be lost forever.

“He got on his hands and knees and he went all over the yard,” John’s son, Jeff, told the outlet. “He hunted and hunted for it and he couldn’t find it.”

Before he died in 2013 at age 78, John suggested Jeff return to their family home to search for the heirloom with a metal detector. Though the Arnetts had moved from the property several decades prior, the house is currently owned by a couple the family knew, and the new owners let Jeff root around the yard in search of the ring.

Jeff started his search more than 10 years ago, WTOL 11 reported, but the task proved more difficult than anticipated. The Arnetts’ old home had since undergone roof repairs, which left bits of metal in the yard that made it harder for the machine to detect the ring itself. After about two and a half years, Jeff gave up the search.

But this year, Jeff’s family gifted him a metal detector of better quality, renewing hopes of finally locating the ring.

Before picking up the search where he left off, Jeff prayed for “one favor,” to help him find the heirloom. Moments later, his metal detector picked up on something buried in the ground, and after some frantic digging, Jeff was finally holding the ring that meant so much to his family, and slipped it on his own hand for a moment.

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“He’d been dead for 13 and a half years. It was almost like touching him one last time,” Jeff told WTOL 11. “I think he would literally have cried — it meant something to him.”

As it turns out, this summer would have been Jeff’s last chance to find the ring, as the current owners of the home were preparing to sell the property to new buyers.

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Jeff’s first thought was of his mother, Carol, to whom the ring symbolized 55 years of marriage. She, too, had prayed for the ring to be found that day.

“When he came back, I knew right away, just by looking at him that he found the ring,” Carol told the outlet as she placed the ring on her own finger.

“He was a good man, and we had great years together,” Carol added of her husband, John. “I believe that he led Jeff that day right to that ring. And he knew where it was all the while.”

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