On a quiet day with jellyfish swarming and the Gulf breeze blowing, Cregg Thompson wasn’t looking to make history. He just wanted to enjoy his favorite pastime: metal detecting along Fulton Beach. But what he found in the clay-packed sands beneath the water has now sparked a community-wide mystery, and the thrilling hope of a long-lost reunion.
“I got a good signal about 30 yards out in the surf,” Thompson recalled in a phone interview. “Dug it up, tossed it in my pouch, didn’t think much of it. Later, I handed it to my wife, and she just stared at it and said, ‘Cregg… this is from 1943.’”
What Thompson had found was a 10-karat gold class ring, worn smooth from time and water. It bears the initials “J.C.H.”, and based on the wear pattern, it may have once hung from a chain around someone’s neck, until fate dropped it into the waves, perhaps never meant to be seen again…