Mackenzie Francisco

By Mackenzie Francisco

NOTE: This article was originally published in The Pilot Newspaper on Sept. 7, 2021.

Forty-one years ago, Margie Snow was wading in the lake at Cardinal Park when her class ring from Magnolia High School in Lumberton went MIA. Fearful of what her grandmother — still making payments on the ring at the time — would say, Snow had forever kept the loss a secret.

On Aug. 25, Chester Rodriguez and Leilani Jones were running their metal detector over the sand near Cardinal Park’s lake when Jones saw a glimmer and discovered Snow’s ring, right where she had lost it 41 years ago.

Rodriguez immediately kicked into detective mode. He searched a Magnolia High School Alumni Facebook group for anyone with the “MS” initials carved inside the ring. Rodriguez’ search narrowed down to Margie Snow.

“I sent her a friend request on Facebook, but she never accepted. I don’t blame her because I’m obviously a stranger to her,” he said, laughing.

Snow’s profile indicated that she worked at Stedman-Wade Health Services in Fayetteville, and Rodriguez began leaving messages for her at work.

“I got the messages and I thought ‘there’s no way. This is just a scam,’” Snow said.

But against the advice of some co-workers, she finally decided to call this “Rodriguez guy” back.

July 1980

Snow had recently graduated from Magnolia High School, which is now closed. She was in a program that allowed her to attend what’s now UNC Pembroke early while still attending class at Magnolia. When summer rolled around, she lived on campus.

It was then when she recalls meeting up with some friends at Cardinal Park in Pinebluff and swimming in the lake.

“I remember I wasn’t too far out and combing my fingers through the water,” she said. “When I looked down, I realized the ring slipped off. I searched and searched, dug through the sand and it was gone.

“I couldn’t tell anyone because my grandma was still paying the ring off, so I just kept it to myself.”

Snow eventually moved away, joined the military and wound up moving to Fayetteville in 2007, where she still lives.

Then, one day out of the blue, some guy named Chester Rodriguez calls her with a story about a ring he found at Cardinal Park.

It couldn’t be, could it?

One Woman’s Treasure

Dubious as it all sounded, Snow finally returned Rodriguez’ call. The story he told kind of — well — had a ring to it, but very faint. Yes, she said, she’d lost a ring a long time ago. Yes, it had a little engraved basketball player on the side. But she didn’t know anything about a “Cardinal Park.”

Then she looked it up on Facebook and saw photos of kids swimming in the lake.

“It all started coming back.”

Snow agreed to a meeting at Cardinal Park on Saturday, Aug. 28.

“I’m not going to lie — I was skeptical all the way to Pinebluff,” she said. “When they gave it to me, I just couldn’t believe it.”

By looking at the ring, you’d never be able to tell that it was underwater for 41 years.

“It looks brand new,” Snow said. “I wore it to work and showed everyone and they just keep asking, ‘Are you for real?’ I told them I’ll never lose this thing again.”

An Intervention of Fate?

Was this destined to happen?

After all, Rodriguez and his partner, Jones, don’t even live here. They’re visiting from Hawaii while Jones works on an engineering project in Maxton.

When approached by the couple for permission to search for hidden treasure, Mitch Capel, owner of Cardinal Park, told them that no one had ever run a metal detector over the park since its founding in the 1960s — a metal-detector waver’s dream come true.

In the three months since he began working the park, Rodriguez and Jones have found close to 100 rings, 10 to 12 gold chains, $65 in quarters alone and a mercury dime from the 1940s.

“One thing about metal detecting is you’re rarely able to return lost items,” Rodriguez said. “It’s considered a metal detector’s Holy Grail when you’re actually able to return something to someone that they lost.”