Lost ring’s owner found a second time

A British man who discovered a U.S. class ring on an English beach nearly a decade ago said he has finally tracked down its owner across the Atlantic.

Cyril Clarke, 90, said he found the 1958 black onyx ring on a beach in the county of Sussex, England, nearly 10 years ago and held on to the item with the hope of someday returning it to its original owner, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.

Clarke said he began a friendship some years later with a pen pal in the United States, Michelle Schrag, who he met during a conference in London. He decided to visit her in the Chicago area this summer and the pair tracked the ring back to Oak Ridge High School in Tennessee.

Schrag used the school’s Web site to identify the ring’s owner as Ellie Tucker, 68, who had lived in England during the 1960s.

Tucker, who said she plans to visit Chicago to retrieve her ring Saturday, said it was not the first time she had lost the item. She said she lost the ring in Myrtle Beach, S.C., shortly after her graduation and it was returned to her years later.

It must have some incredible magnetic attachment to me, she said of the ring.