Happy 'coincidence' finds lost Aggie ring
Ran Newman's Texas A&M University ring is back on his right hand - where it had been for 64 years until a few weeks ago - thanks to a lucky coincidence.
Newman, from Brenham, lost his beloved ring several weeks ago while he was working in his yard. He didn't know where in the yard it had slipped off. Or how.
"I had been working in the garden," he said. "I don't really know what happened."
So Newman began searching for it, even borrowing a metal detector to sweep the ground.
Nothing. Newman thought his ring was gone forever.
But about three weeks ago, Newman decided to attend a Czech Heritage Convention in nearby Caldwell. It was there that he met Paul Krugler, A&M Class of 1972 and a classmate of Washington County Judge John Brieden.
Krugler gave a presentation on metal detectors. Afterwards, Newman struck up a conversation with Krugler and mentioned his lost ring.
"I told him about losing my ring and searching for it," said Newman. "That I had just about decided to give up and buy another one."
Krugler, said Newman, "offered to come over with some new and advanced equipment" in a final effort to try and find the lost ring.
Krugler, retired from A&M's Transportation Institute and living in Austin, made the trip to Newman's home Tuesday afternoon.
And he found the missing ring.
"It was 40 or 50 feet from where I thought I'd lost it," said Newman. "It was way out of range (from a normal metal detector), but he said, "Let me make just a few more swipes."
"I was pretty excited about it," Newman added. "It was just a pure and simple coincidence (that he met Krugler). There was no planning about it."