Man returns wedding ring to owner almost 55 years later

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    MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (WSMV) — For one man in Murfreesboro, he’s proven you just never know what kind of hidden treasure you’ll find in your backyard.

What he found, is something no amount of money could not buy back.

Bored at home during the pandemic, Doug Cook of Murfreesboro picked up a new hobby.

“That is something there already,” he said while searching the ground.

He’s searching for buried treasures, with his new metal detector he bought from Murfreesboro Pawn and Gold.

So far, he’s found plenty, including Civil War-era bullets. However, his latest find will forever be his favorite.

This April, while listening to a conference call he turned on his metal detector. “I had just turned it on,” Cook said. It was one of the first signals.”

Cook located a missing wedding ring.

“As soon as I broke it open just gold ring pops up,” Cook told News 4. “It’s like a video game, like bing.”

Lost for almost 55 years, he knew who the ring belonged to Ransom Jones, the same gentlemen gave him a tour of the house when Doug bought it in 2006.

“The last walkthrough at the house I had talked to Doug and told him about losing a ring and he remembered, he remembered that 1 I told him that,” Ransom Jones told News 4 with a smile. “I was handling some shavings over at my parents’ house. I scattered the shavings, and my ring came off my finger with the shavings.”

“Once I saw initials, I knew it was the one,” Cook said. Shortly after, Cook reunited Ransom with his ring, almost 55 years later.

“Wow,” Jones said in the video of the exchange.

“Do you still want to marry me,” his wife, Wren Jones, said.

“I would do it all over again,” Jones said.

“It’s one I have been grieving over for 55 years, so we went over there it was an emotional event I tell you,” Jones said.

Cook added, “He grieved for that thing weekly, to have that closure is priceless.”

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