Metal detector uncovers woman's wedding ring that she lost 15 years ago

Corrine Armstrong had almost given up hope of finding her lost wedding ring. It slipped off her finger, along with her engagement ring, about 15 years ago, but she wasn't sure exactly where.

Then two weeks ago, Armstrong was digging in her garden at her Beausejour home when she unearthed her engagement ring. This sparked another search as she and her husband dug up her backyard garden, looking for her wedding ring, but again, no luck.

That's when she called in Robert Unik, an expert metal detector who documents his finds on Facebook. After about 45 minutes of searching, Unik's machine had picked up the signal of Armstrong's gold ring.

"It is like a treasure that you'd lost and then you find it again," said Armstrong.

This wasn't the first ring Unik has found. People often ask him to search for lost valuables on their properties, and over the years, he estimates he's found more than a hundred, from precious jewelry like Armstrong's to junk rings of purely sentimental value.

After he found the ring, Unik said Armstrong offered to pay him $100, but he would only accept $20 to cover his gas.

"It's not the idea of making money for what we do. It's the joy of finding something and returning it," he said.

He did have a suggestion for Armstrong's husband, though.

"I mentioned to the husband. I said you should get down on one knee and propose all over again."

Armstrong's rings were a little loose after she said her husband had them resized a little too big. When she first noticed they were missing, she thought maybe they had fallen down a drain at the school where she worked as a teacher.

But after the janitor took the drain apart and didn't find the rings, she had no idea where they might be.

Now that she has them back, Armstrong said she's afraid to wear them, on the chance that they might slip off again. Aside from some dirt underneath the claw holding the diamond, the wedding ring is in perfect condition, she said.

"It's amazing how shiny gold stays," she said.

Unik is a member of a group of about 180 metal detecting enthusiasts. Most of the parks and boulevards around the city have been gone over, he said, so he's always looking for new properties to search.

Among the rare items Unik has found with his metal detector is a Swedish coin from the 1600s, which he found at Loni Beach near Gimli, Man.