ROCK PORT, Mo. (WOWT) - A garden near Rock Port, Missouri produced a mystery when Neal Lansdown found a dirt-packed class ring and cleaned it up.

“I don’t want a reward I just want the satisfaction of knowing where he lost it and giving him the ring back,” Neal said.

Leaders of the Omaha Northwest foundation kept the ring while they searched for the owner, whose name is inscribed inside.

“That’s my ring,” said Cary Crocker.

Cary Crocker, Omaha Northwest Class of 1978, lives in Jacksonville, Florida and he says he remembers last wearing his class ring in about 1981.

“I have no clue how it got away from me,” Cary said. “Whether I lost it or misplaced it or someone stole it, I don’t know.”

The ring owner has been found, but how it got to Missouri still remains a mystery.

“I know I didn’t drop it in your garden because I’ve never been to that location before,” Cary said.

He says it’s only a guess, but Cary’s family owned an Omaha flower shop where he may have lost the ring and somehow soil from there ended up in Neal’s garden.

“We sold potted plants and all that for many years and I’d be down there from time to time to work, so I don’t know, that could be a possibility,” Cary said.

The Omaha Northwest alums know for sure the ring will be sent back to its owner.

“It was good to see his face and see him smile, I like helping people,” said Angie Hawkins with the Omaha Northwest Foundation.

The initial report on efforts to find the ring owner aired in other markets around the country. Cary says a relative in Georgia saw the story and contacted him in Florida, which him to call First Alert 6.