B.C. girl’s sunken treasure find leads to wedded bliss for Seattle man

Published 12:00 pm Monday, September 15, 2025

Though she didn't get to keep the sunken treasure, London Shellborn is still rich from the experience.

While enjoying time with family at Canoe Beach on Saturday, Sept. 6, the 10 year old Salmon Arm resident said she was searching the lake bottom near the dock for shells when something caught her attention. With blue-tinted goggles on, she reached down and grabbed what turned out to be not a shell, but a men's gold and silver wedding band. 

"Everything looked blue, and I thought it was a shell until I looked at the side of it and then it was a ring," said London.

London brought the found treasure ashore to show her mom, Stephanie, who informed her daughter it was a very special ring. 

"I thought I was going to keep it, but my mom said we should put it up first, so if anyone could describe it then we’d have to give it to them," said London. 

Stephanie said she and London decided to share a notice of the found ring in a couple of Salmon Arm community groups on Facebook. 

"I told her we would keep the posts up for a week and see if the owner could be found then, if not, she could keep it," said Stephanie. 

However, the posts quickly garnered interest from fellow Salmon Arm residents, including a Margaret Lake-Hardy, who shared it with Joyce Wessel of Salmon Arm, and her son Kevin Wessel who lives in Seattle. Lake-Hardy then shared the reply she'd received from Kevin, who said he'd lost his wedding ring near the Canoe Beach dock. Soon after, a photo of Kevin's ring was shared with Stephanie, and she knew she'd found the ring's rightful owner. 

It turned out the ring was lost on August 24, when Kevin was in Salmon Arm, swimming at the dock.

"He dove off the dock and realized right away the ring had slipped off his finger and he said he’d searched for about 20 minutes to find it but couldn’t," said Stephanie.

Stephanie telephoned Joyce who, it turned out, "lives a few blocks away from us." Joyce went to the Shellborn's to retrieve the ring, and brought with her a basket of ocean shells. London was told she could choose some of the shells as a gift. 

"It was cool," said London of the experience, adding she was a little sad because if the ring hadn't been claimed, she'd thought of selling it and use the money to purchase an electric scooter. "But the day after, I was walking with my friend Tanya and I found a free electric scooter so it worked out very well."

Stephanie confirmed the kids scooter was among several free items left at the end of a neighbour's driveway.

"I’m going to Tanya’s with it today," said London of the scooter. 

Stephanie was both pleased and surprised with how things turned out, as she didn't think they'd find the ring's owner.  

"I’m really grateful we found the owner because it was obviously really special to him and his wife, and it was cool we got to meet another person from Salmon Arm, his mom, and she was so great," said Stephanie, adding it was a good learning experience for London, "about how you’d like to be treated if you lost something precious to you like that…"