Life is stranger than fiction

WAITSBURG-What are the odds of finding a ring that was lost in a river 26 years earlier? And what are the odds of showing that same ring to the one person in town who could recognize it and return it to it to its rightful owner? That's exactly what happened to E.J., who lives off the land outside of Waitsburg.

Waitsburg resident Ron Griffen said he was working on his truck in his alley, just off of Main Street, when E.J. approached him and they struck up a conversation. E.J., who regularly fishes in the Touchet River and makes arrows and arrowheads, told Griffen he had recently found a ring in the river.

Griffen said his interest was sparked immediately and he asked to see the ring.

Twenty-six years earlier, Griffen's ex-wife, Sylvia, and her mother, had given their then 13-year-old daughter Sylvia's first wedding and engagement ring set. Griffen said it was just a matter of months before his daughter came home upset after having lost the ring while swimming in the river. The ring was never found.

E.J. showed the ring to Griffen, who snapped a photo and texted it to his ex-wife.

"I then called her and told her to look at the picture I'd sent. She immediately said, 'Oh my God! That's my ring!" Griffen said.

Griffen said he could see E.J.'s face fall a bit when Sylvia recognized the ring.

"I'm guessing he wanted to have it appraised to sell. I told him, 'It's yours to do with what you want. Finders keepers, losers weepers,'" Griffen said.

"E.J. said that now that he knew who it belonged to, he couldn't keep it. That shows a lot of integrity from someone that could use the money," said Griffen, who insisted that E.J. accept a reward.

"I had never talked to E.J. before in my life, but he told me that something told him he needed to talk to me about the ring and show it to me. That just doesn't happen in real life. Every diamond was still in the setting. Just imagine how much water has come down that river in 26 years," Griffen mused.