JACKSON – “It was meant to be”…that was on the lips of nearly everyone after hearing the story of a lost high school class ring that took 25 years to discover.

Alton Vick found the owner of a 1984 Northampton County High School (now Northampton-East) class ring after making just two phone calls.

His mother and step father, Kenneth and Juanita Webb, have a hobby of searching for “treasurers” with their metal detectors and found the ring in about an inch of dirt under a bench on the school campus.

Vick decided to try to find the owner and called the Central Office for Northampton County Schools. He gave Patricia Harris, Administrative Assistant for the superintendent, the initials and dates on the ring. Harris put on her “CSI” hat and found a transcript which indicated that the ring belonged to Linda Ann Epps, now living in Maryland.

In another ironic twist to this story, Lakeshia Epps, the sister-in-law of Linda Ann Epps, share an office with Harris.

With the connection made, Vick, or “Rambo” as his fellow hunting buddies call him, made the trip from Tarboro to Jackson and presented the ring to Lakeisha Epps and she will be returning it to her very thankful and happy sister-in-law in the near future. She plans to send Vick some type of reward.

Everyone at the Central Office that heard the story was amazed and especially loved hearing Vick’s version of the tale.