Lost wedding ring found 3 years later at Florida restaurant

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A wedding ring lost three years ago at a busy South Florida restaurant is headed back to its owner thanks to a social media post and some sharp internet detectives.

>> Read more trending news

Ryan Krivoy, the manager at Coconuts in Fort Lauderdale, had to limit his eatery to takeout and delivery orders because of the coronavirus, WPLG reported. The popular outdoor deck, overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, was idle because there was no on-site eating, so Krivoy decided to replace the splintered wood, according to the television station.

While cleaning up the debris under the deck, restaurant staffers found plenty of change, expired credit cards, a gold coin that was 165 years old -- and a silver wedding ring, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

The ring was engraved with "Mike & Lisa 08-21-15,” the newspaper reported.

Krivoy originally thought the ring belonged to a longtime customer but realized it wasn’t after washing the sand from and finding the engraving.

“When we realized it wasn’t his ring, we all agreed maybe we could find the owner," Krivoy told WPLG. We didn’t know if they lost it three weeks ago or two years ago.”

Sasha Formica, the marketing manager for the restaurant, searched Google and the wedding site The Knot to see if she could find the couple, WPLG reported. When that hit a dead end, Formica decided to post a photo on social media.

“We took to Facebook and basically put the post up as a long shot,” Formica told the Sun-Sentinel. “That was on Monday and on (Thursday), Lisa called the restaurant.”

The post had been shared on social media nearly 5,000 times when Lisa called the restaurant from New York, the newspaper reported.

“She called and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but I’m Lisa,’” Formica told the Sun-Sentinel.

Lisa texted photographs of the ring to confirm the wedding band was a match, the newspaper reported. She explained the ring slipped off her husband’s hand and rolled between the deck’s wooden floorboards.

The culprit, she said, was the restaurant’s Scooby Snacks -- crab claws sauteed in garlic butter -- which caused the ring to fall off Mike’s hand, WPLG reported.

In a thank you text to Coconuts, Lisa said the ring was lost March 20, 2017, while the couple was celebrating her birthday, the television station reported.

“Your ‘Scooby Snacks’ are so delicious, yet deadly because as Mike was licking his fingers and wiping his hand clean, he dropped his ring below the deck,” Lisa wrote.

As for the other treasures, Krivoy said the gold coin -- a quarter eagle from 1855 that had a face value of $2.50 but can be worth up to $2,000, depending on its condition -- was the biggest find.

“We found a couple of $100 bills,” Krivoy told the Sun-Sentinel. “I don’t know how those got down there.”

Krivoy said he plans to put the bills, along with plenty of spare change found under the deck, in a tip jar to share with the staff, the newspaper reported.

The biggest treasure -- the wedding ring -- was returned to the couple Friday via certified mail, Krivoy told the Sun-Sentinel.

Cox Media Group