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Utah man gets lost class ring back 45 years later

A 1966 Bonneville High School class ring that had been lost for 45 years is shown Jan. 13, 2012 in Salt Lake City. Owner Brent Aguirre assumed the ring was at the bottom of Pineview Reservoir, not far from the Great Salt Lake, and wrote it off when he left to fight in Vietnam. It wasn't until this fall that Aguirre received a Facebook message from a couple in nearby Sandy, saying they wanted to get in touch with him and that they had the ring. Aguirre met up with the couple just after Christmas. (AP Photo/Deseret News, Jen Pilgreen)

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The Associated Press Updated 2:26 PM Friday, January 13, 2012

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who lost his class ring six months after he bought it is getting the keepsake back 45 years later, thanks to some Facebook detective work.

Brent Aguirre said his mother was disappointed when the 1966 Bonneville High School graduate lost the ring, which is gold toned with a deep blue stone.

"It's a beautiful ring," he told KSL-TV (http://bit.ly/zT8f9o). "I remember mom and dad forked out pretty good money for it."

He assumed the ring was at the bottom of Pineview Reservoir, not far from the Great Salt Lake, and wrote it off when he left to fight in Vietnam.

The military service turned into an Air Force career that led him through nine different moves across the world and finally back to his hometown of Ogden. It wasn't until the fall that Aguirre received a Facebook message from a couple in nearby Sandy, saying they wanted to get in touch with him.

He brushed it off, but they contacted him again, telling him they'd found a ring with his name inscribed in cursive script.

The couple still isn't sure where the ring came from. The husband said he can't remember where he originally found it, and the wife said the keepsake turned up when she was cleaning out a desk drawer.

"It was unbelievable," Aguirre said. "I had written it off, and it was hard to believe they actually had my ring."

Aguirre met up with the couple just after Christmas. More than four decades older, the ring no longer fits on his ring finger, but Aguirre said he's happy to have it on his pinky.

He said he only has one regret: That his mother, once upset that her teenage son lost the valuable so quickly, was not around to see that he'd found it at last.

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Information from: KSL-TV, http://www.ksl.com/

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January 13, 2012 07:24 PM EST

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