Strangers helped find a diamond-encrusted engagement ring in Stow

Keen metal detectorists came to the rescue of a woman who had lost her engagement ring at a Stow park.

Hudson resident Caitlin Honniball, 36, had taken her wedding and engagement rings off when out walking with a friend last week along the Summit Metro Parks’ Bike and Hike Trail off Stow Road near Silver Springs Park.

“I never take my rings off,” said Honniball. “But it was warm, and my fingers were swelling and started to hurt against the bands, so I put them in my pocket along with my car keys.”

The mom of two admits she forgot what she had done when she returned to her car and drove off.

“I had totally forgotten they were in my pocket,” she said. “When I remembered, I only had my wedding bands, not my engagement ring. I turned around and went straight back and looked everywhere for 45 minutes before I had to go to a meeting but didn’t find anything. My stepdad came and carried on looking for me, and I went back later but still couldn’t find it.

“The next morning, I went back for one last look when a woman came up to me. She could tell I was looking for something and joined in my search. Then she said her dad had a metal detector and (asked) would I like to use it? She called her parents, and they said they would come and help, too.”

It turned out the helpful metal detectorists were Ed and Denise Gazdacko, who had owned the Sto-Kent Family Entertainment bowling alley on Fishcreek Road until its recent closure.

They drove from their home in Hartville to help Honniball in the search for her engagement ring, a princess cut surrounded by diamonds with a diamond band, which had been on her finger for 17 years.

“I have never misplaced my ring or lost anything of importance before,” she said. “The three of us were looking for the ring; Denise was using the detector, and Ed and I were walking the parking lot in rows.”

And luck was shining: The ring was found in a spot of the parking lot that Honniball had covered several times previously without spotting it.

“It was fantastic we found it,” she said, “but I am more touched that strangers were willing to come all the way from Hartville to help me. I was pretty devastated to lose it, but it means so much that someone cared about someone they didn’t know. It was more touching than finding the ring.”

She had admitted to husband Christopher that her engagement ring had been lost but added: “He was disappointed, but he has managed to lose two of his rings before, so he had no place to talk.”

Honniball was so delighted at the help of strangers that she posted her thanks on the Stow Talk of the Town Facebook group.