There have been several stories of scuba divers recovering lost rings from the sea recently – but it doesn’t usually take 37 years for owners to be reunited with their missing jewellery.
A Spanish man, Agustin Aliaga from Utebo near Zaragoza, lost his wedding ring while swimming in the Mediterranean off Benidorm five months after marrying his wife Juani in the late 1970s.
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“It was a big surprise that after 37 years someone should find the ring,” he has told the Heraldo newspaper.
In early August, Spanish diving-instructor Jessica Niso noticed something gleaming on the seabed off Benidorm, even though the ring was mostly buried in sediment. Close inspection showed that it was inscribed with the date of the wedding as well as Agustin’s first name, so she posted on Facebook that she was looking for “a couple who had married on 17 February, 1979 and had visited the island of Benidorm”. As a security precaution, she withheld Agustin’s name.
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Niso reposted the request a month later, this time including a photograph. The post was shared by some 78,000 people, but of more than 300 responses only one gave the correct name, after a niece had told Agustin Aliaga about the post.
“Jessica started screaming with excitement” when Aliaga gave her his name, and because his wife had a matching ring he was able to supply proof of ownership. The couple are now looking forward to 26 September, when Niso returns the ring to them in person.
