Eleven-year-old Kate Drury might have heard of the saying "finders, keepers", but when she found a 1960 World Series ring she knew she had to return.
The Chatham, N.J.-girl spotted the ring under a table on her way back from buying a Hershey's bar in a vending machine during a local hockey game her brother was playing in.
So her mother, Marla, told NBCNewYork "a chocolate craving brought Kate and the ring together."
Drury and her parents informed the the rink manager of the lost item and hit the message boards while waiting to hear from the owner.
"I was on Yahoo Answers cause I didn't know how much the ring was worth, like if it was worth 50 bucks or like a thousand," Kate told us.
That's where Arlan Hess, an English professor at Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, found the posting from someone who found a 1960 World Series ring belonging to "Merrill Mess."
Hess had realized he lost the ring weeks before. In 1960, he worked as an assistant scouting director for the Pittsburgh Pirates and received the ring when the Pirates won the World Series.
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After retracing his steps, he thought the ring was gone forever.
"I was heartbroken," Hess told the NJ Star Ledger.
Hess responded to the post, and Drury and her parents drove to Hess' home in Morristown to drop off the ring.
"That ring could have paid for her freshman year in college. This girl doing the right thing, that says a lot about her parents, and the world they want her to live in," Hess told the Ledger.
Hess gave Drury a check, a gift certificate and an autographed photograph from the 1960 series.
But Kate and her mom just felt good for a job well done.
"That night after we went home we could sleep because we knew the ring was back where it belonged," said Marla Drury.
