Man on Harley finds engagement ring on road

[August 13, 2008]  WEST HAVEN, Utah (AP) -- The wedding is on. A 23-year-old man who left an engagement ring on the hood of a car went from extremely unlucky to lucky when another man riding a Harley-Davidson noticed a little black jewelry box in the middle of the road.

"I never thought we'd see that ring again," said Karen Jones, whose son Tyler forgot he had put the $3,000 diamond ring on his girlfriend's car.

After some frantic days, turning the house upside-down looking for the ring, the Jones family had just about given up hope. They placed a classified ad in the Standard-Examiner, knowing the chances of anybody seeing it -- or wanting to give back a diamond ring -- were slim.

What they didn't know was that Monte Kirk had found the ring as he was riding his Harley one day.

"I opened the box and found a diamond ring inside," he said. "You don't find that every day."

Kirk took the ring home to his wife, Debbie, and she said they would watch the newspaper for anyone missing a ring.

Jones waited all week and decided to still propose to Amanda Anderson -- with or without the original diamond. He decided to buy another ring Saturday afternoon and be more careful with this one.

However, Kirk and his wife had noticed the ad and were trying to reach Jones and tell him. When Kirk finally got through, he said Karen Jones answered.

"She was so happy," Kirk said. "Her son works two jobs and was going to propose that very day."

Kirk asked Karen to describe the ring in detail to make sure it was the right one. When he was sure it was the same ring, Kirk and his wife hopped on the Harley and met Karen Jones at a nearby store.

"He suddenly brought out the ring from behind his back, and I just started bawling," she said. "I asked him to follow me over to the bank to give him the ($100) reward. He wouldn't accept the reward, though."

Kirk said he never thought of keeping the ring.

"I know my wife would be sick if she lost her ring," he said. "There wasn't anything else to do. It wasn't rightfully mine. I had to find the owner."

Later that day, Anderson said "yes" to Jones' proposal.

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Information from: Standard-Examiner, http://www.standard.net/

[Associated Press]

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