More than 10 years ago, Cheryl Runkle lost her class ring. Thanks to a Facebook Group called “If you grew up in Knox, IN, you remember when,” the ring has been returned, after traveling all the way from Indiana to Florida and back again.

An employee of a gas station in Hamlet found a ring during one of the festival weekends, and turned the ring in to Maxine Rowe, who was the manager of the gas station at the time. The ring was kept in a drawer until its rightful owner could be found, but several months later, all hope was lost. Rowe took the ring home and has been trying to find its true owner ever since.

“Every time I’d look at it, it was like, ‘Man I really need to find out who owns this ring, but how am I gonna do this?’ Then I saw those people on there and I thought somebody has to know somebody that lost a ring that graduated in that year. She just happened to be on there,” said Rowe.

Rowe had posted a comment on the Facebook group, asking if anyone from the Knox High School graduating class of 1985 had lost a class ring. Coincidentally enough, Runkle was the first person to reply to the post, less than ten minutes later. After describing the ring to Rowe, Runkle’s hopes were confirmed after she received a picture of the ring online.

“It was like winning something, you know. It was just like, what? Is it mine? Is it me? That’s the way I felt, is it me? I can’t really describe how it felt. It was great. Then there was the whole suspense, because she didn’t comment right away, and then she said she believed it could be. I think the most exciting thing was that everybody else was so excited too,” said Runkle.

The entire conversation between Rowe and Runkle concerning the ring caught the attention of many members of the group. Several people also replied to the post, saying they were engrossed in the unfolding of the event, sitting on the edge of their seats waiting to learn if the ring had finally come home.

“It was meant to go home, and I put a little note in there: ‘I’m finally home,’ with the ring. I put on a little stickie note and put it on there,” said Rowe.

Runkle has received the ring and confirms it is hers. After more than 10 years on the lam, the ring has returned halfway across the country to its proper owner.