A Man Found a $40,000 Engagement Ring on a Beach and Gave it Back

One man stumbled across an interesting find on a Florida beach but decided not to keep it. Joseph Cook was combing through Hammock Beach in St. Augustine, Florida, with his trusty metal detector when the device started peeping. He thought he had found a nickel, but he dug up a gorgeous engagement ring instead. Then he decided he would take action!

Cook’s Interest in the Engagement Ring

When Cook dug up the ring, he was dumbfounded but immediately took it to a local jewelry shop for an appraisal. He was told the ring’s estimated cost was around $40,000, so you can imagine the decision he had to make. He chose a more honorable road – he decided to post about his find on social media and see if he would find the owners of the jewel. It took him more than two weeks to hunt down the owner of the precious piece of jewelry!

The Search That Paid Off

Joseph Cook started posting images of the discovered engagement ring on social media and asking local jewelry stores if anyone had come looking for the lost jewelry. Soon after, he started receiving a phone call from an unknown number. He thought about it and figured it might be someone with information about the ring. When he decided to pick up the phone – sure enough – it was a couple from Jacksonville to which the ring belonged.

The woman he spoke to started crying on FaceTime – she was so happy that he had found her engagement ring. Cook met the happy couple near Hammock beach about three weeks after he delivered the good news to them and gave the ring back. He says that he wasn’t disappointed to give the rare find back. He explains that karma is real, which was a proven point when, shortly after, he found yet another ring. He posted about it on social media with the caption Karma is Real.