Man discovers $40,000 diamond ring BURIED on beach – and returns it to owner

Joseph Cook immediately contacted local jewellers to see if anyone had lost the ring and says he has around 30 more that he wants to return to their original owners

A man has unearthed a platinum and diamond ring worth $40,000 (£33,750) buried on a beach in Florida and returned it safely to its owners.

Joseph Cook, 37, found the ring while combing Hammock Beach in St Augustine, Florida, using his metal detector.

A video shows Joseph digging the ring out of the sand and exclaiming in shock: “No way, man, whoah, look at that bad boy, yo that’s real, I swear to God this is the biggest diamond I ever found on the beach”.

He immediately posted the footage to his social media channels and called local jewellery stores looking for people who may have lost rings.

Joseph, who is a content creator, explained: “When I went to the jewellers, they told me it was worth $40,000.

“I just said, ‘oh God that’s been sitting in my scooter for almost a week’, I couldn’t believe it.”

He said that when he first detected the item, he thought “it would just be a nickel”.

“But then I dug it up and it was just this big old diamond and platinum ring,” he said.

Two weeks later, Joseph began receiving calls from a number he didn’t recognise.

He initially ignored them, but later realised it could be the owners of the ring.

Joseph ended up facetiming with a couple from Jacksonville who had lost a similar ring.

“They were pretty happy,” he said. “The wife was on a facetime call and she just said, oh my God I can’t believe it, and then she just started crying.”

Joseph met up with the ring’s owners three weeks after making the discovery and happily returned the piece.

“It felt really good, I’ve returned sixty-thousand dollars of stuff this year, but nothing even close to this before,” he said.

“I really wasn’t disappointed that I had to return it, I’ve got a necklace with about twenty-five to thirty rings on it just so I can return them to their owners.

“Karma’s always good, every time I return an item, I find something better, so I’m happy I could give it back.”