A local couple found this long lost ring in their new-to-them Southeast Hill home when repairing a burst water pipe. The ring has been returned to its rightful owner.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
For Rob and Shannon Pape, the last thing they needed to deal with was a burst water pipe in their new home.
Once they started poking around the broken pipe, the two ended up making quite the discovery.
This story begins last year when the Pape family were looking to relocate from the Southwest Hill, to the Southeast Hill.
The couple searched the area, and ended up falling in love with a home on Eighth Street.
“We drove by this place so many times,” said Rob. “We made multiple offers – we even wrote a letter to the family that owned the house.
“We wanted to buy the place and raise our kids there.”
The couple ended up successfully buying the home, and moved in on Shannon’s birthday last year.
The home was originally built in 1911, and had been in the same family for roughly 70 years before the Papes purchased it.
“We ended up meeting Joel Chambers, the grandson of the people who bought the house 70 years ago,” said Pape. “He actually lives right across the street from us.”
Fast forward to one week ago, Rob was showing out-of-town family around his new home.
“We got down to the mechanical room, and everything was wet. I had no clue what was going on,” he said. “We quickly saw that the last piece of horizontal cast iron pipe in the house had split.
“We obviously had to get on it and fix it.”
On Aug. 26, Rob and some family got the parts to do the job.
“Where the ABS meets the cast iron pipe, there was a collar there,” he said. “We took the pipe off and I just decided to look into the collar to see what it looked like in there.
“I looked in and I swore I could faintly see a ring. I grabbed my flathead screwdriver and scooped it out.
“I looked at my family just shocked, ‘Holy cow, this is a ring!'”
The pipe got repaired, and Shannon got the ring into a solution to try and get decades of gunk off it.
After a few hours in the solution, the Papes got a toothbrush out and began carefully cleaning the ring.
While the ring was getting a bath, Rob went and found his neighbour to tell him the story.
“I sent Joel photos and he sent them to a family group chat,” said Rob. “They were able to describe the ring perfectly, without even seeing it clean.”
The 10 carat gold peridot ring was lost roughly 25 years ago. It belongs to a Chambers family member who wished to have their identity left out of this article.
However, she did say the ring was given to her by a close friend.
“Right from the start, we just wanted to get it back to the family,” said Pape. “This really just confirms to us that this is our house, where we’re supposed to be.
“We’re so happy the ring is back with its family.”
