The Culprit

In 1938, a man named Jesse Mattos stood above a toilet in a butcher’s shop where he worked during high school.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he dropped his commemorative class ring into the commode and lost it, presumably forever.  Poor guy.  I can only hope he washed his hands before returning to work.

Fast forward to 2011, seventy-three years later for those of you who are mathematically challenged.  A 57-year old sanitation worker named Tony Congi discovered the ring 200 miles from where it had been lost.  He was working in the sewer system and recognized the ring.  Why?  He graduated from the exact same high school in 1976.  Small world, isn’t it?

He had the ring cleaned (thankfully) and noticed the year and the initials “JTM” on it.  He found the 1938 yearbook from his high school and found that there was only one person there with those initials – Jesse Mattos.

Mr. Congi tracked him down and gave him the ring.  Mr. Mattos said, “Something like this ring thing was a real booster for me. I felt like I was a lot younger again.”

We couldn’t find a pictue of Mr. Mattos, so I’m going to use this picture of a happy old man because I assume this is how he looked when he got his ring back:

Congratulations!

 

Via The Telegraph