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Ring Lost in Agnes Flood Returned After 43 Years

WILKES-BARRE — A man who lost his Wilkes College class ring during the Agnes Flood just got it back on Friday. That class ring was lost in the flood of 19...
luz ring found

WILKES-BARRE -- A man who lost his Wilkes College class ring during the Agnes Flood just got it back on Friday.

That class ring was lost in the flood of 1972, according the owner of the ring.

It turned up after police arrested a man from Hunlock Creek for a string of burglaries.

The owner of the ring has no idea how the ring got into the hands of a burglary suspect. He's just happy to finally have it back.

Sitting at work in Wilkes-Barre, Roger Stout can admire his 1971 class ring for the first time in 43 years. The ring was lost the year after he graduated from Wilkes College, but last week state police found it.

"I lost it in the flood. How could they get it back?! And found at a crime scene?" said Stout.

Although the ring was lost in the 1972 Agnes flood, state police recovered it after arresting Russell Hann in connection with a string of 10 burglaries and one armed robbery in Luzerne County.

"I can say this, I'm sure it left through an open window at the time of the flood. We lived about a block from the river. So where it went after that, probably came to rest on the river banks somewhere."

A Pennsylvania State Police trooper returned the class ring to Stout, while he was at work here at a credit union in Wilkes-Barre. Roger says he could not believe his long-lost ring was found until he saw it in person.

"I wore that ring every day, so it's good to have it back on. I'm very happy all the way around."

State police got help from what is now Wilkes University in identifying Roger Stout as the ring's owner. The ring is inscribed with the initials R.S., B.S.

The director of alumni relations at Wilkes simply opened the 1971 year book. Within minutes, she had picked out senior Roger Stout who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree.

"These things don't happen every day. I had only just found out today that he had lost it for that many years, and has just been reunited with it, since pretty much after he received it at graduation," said Bridget Giunta Husted.

Roger Stout's ring is one of many pieces of jewelry state police found after arresting Russell Hann. They are asking that anyone with missing jewelry that could've been taken by Hann, or anyone with information related to burglaries that may have been committed by Hann to contact state police at the Shickshinny barracks.

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