Class Ring Found in Garden 44 Years Later

A Missouri man tending to his garden found a high school class ring from Nebraska that turned out to have been missing since around 1981.

He cleaned the object and discovered it was an Omaha Northwest High School Class of 1978 ring, with the name Cary Crocker inscribed on the inside.

Lansdown said he was fascinated by how the ring came to be in his garden, about 70 miles south of Omaha.

"I don't want a reward, I just want the satisfaction of knowing where he lost it and giving him the ring back," Lansdown told WOWT-TV.

The Omaha Northwest Foundation sparked a search for Crocker on social media, but the efforts of online sleuths failed to turn up any solid leads until Crocker spotted his ring on a TV news report.

Crocker, who now lives in Florida, said he believes the ring went missing around 1981.

"I have no clue how it got away from me," he said. "Whether I lost it or misplaced it or someone stole it, I don't know."

Neal Lansdown said he was working in his garden near Rock Port when he spotted something glistening in the dirt.


Crocker said he has never been to Rock Port, but his family did run an Omaha flower shop around the time he lost the ring, so it might have ended up in soil that eventually made its way to Lansdown's garden.

"We sold potted plants and all that for many years and I'd be down there from time to time to work, so I don't know, that could be a possibility," he said.