DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. -- Kevin Cobb was not sure what he would find when he took out his metal detector and searched around his girlfriend's grandmother's home in Dinwiddie last week. But what he found has captured the attention of the internet.

At first Cobb said he pulled up some tin cans and bottle caps, but then the metal detector hit on a ring buried about eight inches into the ground. Cobb unearthed the ring, cleaned it off and posted a photo on Facebook. Three days later, that photo had been shared more than 200,000 times.

The ring appeared to come from a U.S. Navy recruit training command based out of Great Lakes, Illinois. The initials "LEY" are engraved on the ring, as is the year "1973."

"I know that's not a lot of info, but I would really like to find the owner," Cobb posted on Facebook. "Help me out by sharing this post. The more people that see this the better chance of me finding the owner."

Wayne Covil spoke with Kevin Cobb about his "viral" discovery and will provide on update on the search for the right's rightful owner tonight on CBS 6 News at 6.