SWEET HOME, Ore. (AP) - A Sweet Home woman has her wedding ring back, thanks to some small-town kindness.
     
Ladonna Gardner put her ring in her pocket to shovel her driveway during a recent snow storm. But the ring wasn't there when she looked.
     
Her husband, Aaron, is stationed in Iraq. He got the tearful call and told her he would replace the ring.
     
But KFIR radio in Sweet Home talked to Ladonna Gardner. She tried renting a metal detector from a prosepecting supply shop in town. It didn't find her ring.
     
She went back to the shop in tears.
     
But the owner of the supply shop has been prospecting since 1971. He went with Ladonna, walking her through her every move that day including a short snowball fight she had with a neighbor.
     
The ring was found there with the metal detector.
     
Steve Houston has found a lot since 1971, but says nothing will top finding Gardner's ring.
     
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)