— When WRAL meteorologist Aimee Wilmoth lost her Texas A&M Aggie class ring in the surf more than three years ago, she thought she would never see her treasured ring again.

But last week, she was contacted by a man who found the ring while using a metal detector on the North Carolina coast.

Wilmoth said the lost ring was a sad ending to her 2014 family vacation.

"I wear my wedding ring, (and) I wear my Aggie ring all the time," Wilmoth said. "We look for shark teeth in the surf. We feel like you can find the best ones coming in. At some point, my Aggie ring came off. I was left to assume it was going to live in the ocean forever."

Wilmoth said the Aggie ring is an important Texas A&M tradition, and losing it was very upsetting. She received her ring on April 6, 2001.

"My finger felt completely naked," she said. "You lose something you treasure, and you never think you're going to get it back."

Wilmoth purchased a metal detector shortly after she lost the ring and would search the area every time she returned to the beach.

"There's something about the Aggie ring," Wilmoth said. "It is recognizable by all Aggies. Any part of the world, you could be at an airport, and someone will say, ‘What class are you? I'm an Aggie too.’ It is just that recognizable."

Wilmoth described last week’s email as an amazing surprise.

"I was here in the kitchen, and I opened up my work email," she said. "My mind immediately went to my Aggie ring. He shipped it to me, no questions asked. He just shipped it to me."

When the ring arrived in Raleigh, Wilmoth said she could hardly believe it.

"I was in tears when I opened it," she said. "This is a crazy happy ending."

Wilmoth said her immediate reaction was that she never wanted to take it off again.

“I'll tell you what, I'll take it off the next time I go to the ocean,” she said.

Wilmoth said she will still use her metal detector, hoping to find a treasure of someone else's and return it.