According to WABI, a Maine man recently found a wedding ring in the sand and tried to return it to an owner that no longer wanted it.

The wild story, told to reporters from the ring's finder, Scott Mannke, is one that ends in a bit of an unexpected fashion. Mannke, who recently had the day off of work, decided he was going to head down to the shores of the Penobscot river to take part in one of his favorite hobbies- Metal detecting.

While he was scouring the shoreline, he came across something wicked cool. It was an old wedding ring. After finding the ring, he knew that he needed to do everything he could to get it back to its owner.

The rest of the story, told by Mannke, is pretty wild....

Mannke started his story by telling reporters,

“I’m like, ‘You know what I’m gonna try to find the owner,’ so I dunked it in mineral oil bought a magnifying glass. Well, I threw it on buy swap and trade sites and I got a couple comments like one guy’s like, ‘That’s a generic ring. Why would anyone want that?’ you know. So, I had a few trolls at first, told them to mind their own business and then this lady actually messaged me and she’s like, ‘Wait, I think that’s my ring.’ and I’m like, no way! There’s no way!” 

WABI reports that Mannke then sprung out of bed to quiz the woman on the details of the ring to see if it was truly hers or not.

“I’m like, ‘Okay, give me the initials for the heck of it.’ Two seconds later she tells me the initials. Cause I’m laying in bed, I’m like there’s no way, come on! So, I sit up, because I don’t believe this and I’m like throw me out a date and she throws up the day and it must be the day when they got married back in, I think ‘06 or something.” 

After hearing that, Mannke then thought that there was no way this lady didn't want her wedding ring back. So he then proceeded to try and formulate a plan to meet up and get the ring back to her.

“I go ‘When do you wanna meet up? I’ll return it.’ and no response. I go so I mean, ‘I’d like to return this.’ and no response. So, then she finally tells me she’s like, well, it’s my ex-husband’s and he tossed in the river apparently. So, she goes, ‘It’s nice to know he tossed it in the river.’ Yeah, I was laughing.” 

After all of that, the woman was still able to express her gratitude to the man who found her former wedding ring. However, she still didn't want it back. Instead, she went on to tell Mannke that he might as well sell the thing.

“She was like ‘Thank you for being a good Samaritan trying to do the right thing.’ She goes ‘Thank you for that’, but honestly, you know, it’s the ex-husband. She hates him. She’s like ‘you can either toss it, keep it, or sell it.’ So, there’s a ring for sale I guess.” 

Mannke says that he's still glad he found the ring, even if it didn't have the heartwarming happy ending he had hoped for.

“We’re a good group us metal detectors, and we just try to do the right thing and try to return stuff, you know, but yeah, it’s kind of not the heart felt story, but kind of a comical one. She wasn’t too happy the ex threw it in the river though I don’t think.” 

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