'Oh, I'm so happy!': Widower desperate for his lost wedding ring gets it returned

FIFE -- A 79-year-old man whose wife died this summer was desperate to find his gold wedding band that was lost last week. On Wednesday night, it was returned by someone who had seen his plight the night before on Q13 FOX News.

"Oh, I'm so happy," Pedro Panela said Wednesday night of the ring's return.

Panela, who had lost the ring while at work at the Emerald Queen Casino in Fife last Thursday, and his daughter said Wednesday night they would like to hear from the person who returned the ring so they can give them a proper "thank you."

They say they're going to keep the ring in a very safe place from now on.



Text below is from our earlier story:

Pamela Panela said her parents had one of those epic love stories. They met when her mother was still a teenager in the Philippines. Her father followed her to this country and, years later, finally convinced her to marry him.

“She was very kind,” Pedro Panela said Tuesday night. “She would do everything for me.”



Esperanza Panela died this summer, after a four-year battle with cancer. When Pamela went through her mother’s things, she found her father’s old wedding ring. He hadn’t worn it in years.

“I always told my wife I might lose it or scratch it,” Pedro said.

Pamela convinced her father to start wearing the ring again.

“I constantly wear my mother’s wedding band,” she said.  “I wanted my dad to wear his as well. Something for both of us to have to know she's always with us.”

Last Thursday, Pedro put on the ring and went to work at the Emerald Queen Casino in Fife. A few hours later, it was missing.

“I went to the bathroom and noticed my ring was gone already,” he said.

Pamela said her father has been losing weight since his wife died. She thinks the ring probably slipped off his finger without him noticing. But it hasn’t shown up in the casino’s lost and found.

“I was just kind of hoping it fell in the right hands and someone would return it,” she said. “But no one has.”

She’s contacted pawn shops, and asked them to be on the lookout for the bright gold band with the hammered finish.

“That ring is probably not worth a lot,” she said. “It came from the Philippines. It was purchased many, many, many years ago. It's more the sentimental value of it.”

Pedro is hoping someone will find the ring, so he can hold on to at least one part of his great love.

“I lost my wife, I lost my ring, it's so sad.”

Crime Stoppers is working with the Puyallup tribe and Emerald Queen Casino and they are offering a reward for the return of this ring.