It started with a round piece of metal we found in a parking lot in Newton, Massachusetts -- a shiny bit of gold that happened to catch the sun, and our attention, at the right time.
It was a Harvard University class ring from the year 1954 with the letters "EPG" engraved inside, its owner nowhere around.
A school, a year and initials gave us a lead in finding who it belonged to. We sent out a tweet with the information to see if we could get some help.
After it was retweeted more than 100 times, we got an email from a police officer in Norwalk, Connecticut.
"I saw your tweet about the class ring on Twitter," the email from Lt. Paul Resnick read. "I believe the Harvard class ring belongs to Earle Pat Groper, Harvard Class of 54, age 86."
"I thought to myself, 'I should be able to find this guy in the alumni directory,'" said Christine Mitchell, a Harvard Public Health doctoral student. "There can't be that many people with the initials 'EPG' from the class of 1954."
Mitchell did her own digging after seeing the tweet.
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She found an email address on a Harvard website and sent a note.
"I said 'did you lose your ring? Here's this thread on Twitter' and he said, 'yeah, I lost it today, how do I get it back?'"
Earle "Pat" Groper graduated Harvard in 1954 and lost his ring Monday afternoon after going out for lunch.
He had no clue where it went until we handed it back to him through the help of strangers online.
"I've worn it for over 60 years," said Groper in his Chestnut Hill home. "Thank you, thank you so much."
Groper said he is "flabbergasted" by the response the generated online.
