‘It was quite unbelievable’: Clues lead to mystery owner of K-State class ring lost nearly 30 years ago

MANHATTAN (KSNT) – A former Kansas State University student got a big shock recently when he learned city workers in Texas located his old class ring after he lost it around three decades ago down a toilet.

City employees in Kerrville, Texas recently got in touch with the Kansas State Alumni Association after finding a ring bearing the K-State insignia on it. The workers found the ring in the city’s pipe system while they were digging a sewage line and handed it over in the hopes of reuniting it with its proper owner.

K-State Alumni Association’s Director of Data Management, Crystal Danker, began the hunt to find out who the ring really belonged to. She used what clues she could find on the ring to start the search.

• The clues:
  • It was marked with ‘1990.’
  • The initials ‘R.F.’ were on the interior.
  • A Wildcat is shown on one side with the word ‘Fox’ on the other.

“Based off the pictures on the ring and the wording on it, I did some digging and narrowed down my list of potential suspects,” Danker said.

Danker’s sleuthing paid off and she located Randy Fox. She said he was surprised to learn his old ring had finally been found.

“He was beyond thrilled,” Danker said. “It had been 29 years since he had lost the ring down a toilet. It was found three quarters of a mile from where it was dropped.”

Fox didn’t really expect he would ever be reunited with his class ring that he lost in the mid-1990s. However, when he got the call from the K-State Alumni Association that it had been finally located, he was blown away.

“It was quite unbelievable after almost 30 years and quite amazing,” Fox said.

Danker said Fox got his ring back on Oct. 16. He had been working at a drugstore in the City of Kerrville in the 1990s and lost his ring down a toilet. He contacted a plumber to try and retrieve it but this met with no success.

“We had called the plumber doing due diligence in the store and they took the toilet up and did some searching and didn’t find anything,” Fox said.

Fox said he got the ring after working as a student equipment manager for the football team for four years. He said the ring is very special to him and serves as a reminder of his college days in Kansas.

“I’m always excited to hear someone have a really positive experience with the campus in general,” Danker said. “He never thought in a million years he’d see it again.”

Fox now lives in Washington State where he can be close by other family members. He said he is still getting used to wearing a ring again.

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