Man's shock after discovering diamond ring worth $40,000 buried on beach
He was determined to reunite the ring with its owner
A metal detectorist unearthed a platinum and diamond ring worth a whopping $40,000 (£33,854) on a beach in Florida before safely reuniting it with its rightful owner. What a nice bloke.
Joseph Cook, 37, was out on Hammock Beach in St Johns County with his metal detector when he discovered the expensive piece of jewellery - you can see a video of the find here:
In the clip, a shocked Joseph can be heard saying: "No way, man, woah, look at that bad boy. Holy crap, yo, that's real, I swear to god this is the biggest diamond I ever found on the beach.”
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Determined to reunite the ring, Joseph posted the video on social media and even reached out to jewellery stores to see if anyone had reported a missing ring.
Joseph, who is a content creator, explained: "When I went to the jewellers, they told me it was worth $40,000.
"I just said, 'oh god that's been sitting in my scooter for almost a week', I couldn't believe it."
"When I first found it I thought it would just be a nickel, but then I dug it up and it was just this big old diamond and platinum ring."
Two weeks after sharing the clip, Joseph began to receive phone calls from a number he didn’t recognise - after initially ignoring the unknown number, Joseph soon realised it could be the ring’s owner and FaceTimed with a couple from Jacksonville, who had lost a similar ring.
He said: "They were pretty happy, the wife was on a FaceTime call and she just said, 'oh my god I can't believe it,' and then she just started crying."
Joseph met the ring's owners near Hammock beach, three weeks after finding the ring and returned the piece.
"It felt really good, I've returned sixty-thousand dollars of stuff this year, but nothing even close to this before.”
Joseph said he was happy to hand the ring back, but that he’s still got plenty of items that are yet to be given back to their original owners.
He added: "I really wasn't disappointed that I had to return it, I've got a necklace with about twenty-five to thirty rings on it just so I can return them to their owners.
"Karma's always good, every time I return an item, I find something better, so I'm happy I could give it back."
It's nice to know there's still some good folks out there, isn't it?
Claire Reid