WINNEMUCCA — When Shannon Riggan Albisu graduated from Lowry High School in 1994, she left without her class ring. The gold ring with pink stone was lost the year before by her boyfriend. Despite a lengthy search in the field where he said he lost it, they were not able to find the ring.

Almost 19 years later, a guy with a metal detector found a ring from the class of 1994 with the name “Shannon” spelled out on the side. With information from the 1994 yearbook, Fred Holzel was able to track down the only Shannon who graduated that year, and she was able to describe in detail the ring she lost all those years before.

The two met at Lowry High School on Friday (Feb. 24) where Shannon’s ring was returned to her. Despite having been in the ground so long, it was almost as nice as the day it was lost.

Shannon said to him, “Thank you very, very much.”

She simply didn’t think she’d see that ring again. Because she has her grandmother’s 1945 class ring, and her mother’s 1968 class ring, Shannon actually considered ordering a replacement ring for herself so she could pass the set on to future generations.

Holzel said she was lucky to have the ring back. Sometimes he finds class rings without identifiers, so he’s not sure who the ring belonged to. In this case, Shannon’s name was spelled out on the side.

In other cases, he said, there’s a common name and six of them in the yearbook. In this case, there was just one Shannon in the class of 1994.

The ring was also in good shape and still had the stone. According to Holzel, many of the class rings he pulls out of the ground no longer have their stones.

Further, Shannon did not move far after graduating, so she was easy to find.

Shannon said one of the worst things about losing her class ring was she paid for it herself. She still has the receipt for the $237.

She commented, “That was a lot of money then.”

Holzel joked with her and said, “If you lose it again, just give me a call.”

Holzel said the ring was about two inches down, and he found it using his White’s DFX metal detector.