NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 8 (UPI) -- A Virginia college student reaped a $10,000 reward Thursday when he returned a 15-carat diamond ring he found in a parking lot to its rightful owner.

Jeremy McIntosh told The Virginian-Pilot he found the ring in the middle of September outside a dry cleaner where he works to put himself through Norfolk State University.


"At first when I saw it, it was unbelievable," McIntosh said. "I thought it was a fake."

But he realized quickly the ring was valuable. He learned Thursday morning from a story in the newspaper that the ring, valued at $96,000, belonged to James Ramsey of Norfolk.

Ramsey had been searching for the ring for weeks. He now thinks it dropped out of a pocket when his fiancee took his clothes to the cleaners.

The exchange took place at the Zoots Dry Cleaners in Chesapeake, where McIntosh is the manager. He hurried to the bank with an envelope full of $100 bills.

McIntosh has big plans for the money, paying off credit cards and the loan on his used Nissan Maxima.

"And then maybe I'll get a new pair of shoes or take some friends out to dinner," he said.