Two more minutes and a snowplow would have swept it away — maybe for good.
On Tuesday, the Advocate published a Lacombe man’s appeal for help finding a precious memento of the Bentley Generals’ victory in the 2008-09 Allan Cup, played last April in Steinbach, Man.
Peter Leaney, skate technician for the team, believed his personally engraved Allan Cup ring had fallen off of his finger some time after 5 p.m. on Dec. 22. Leaney, using a metal detector borrowed from a friend, searched his driveway while his wife, Mo, made yet another search inside their garage.
Convinced that he had combed every square millimetre of his own place, Leaney then went to the community post box.
A snowplow was working its way toward the post box when Leaney started sweeping the area where he had parked his car. There, under about five cm of snow, was the missing ring.
“How higher can you get than Cloud Nine?” Leaney said.
“It must have fallen out to the left, right by the side of the road. I was up there for not more than 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and there it was. It was jam-packed full of ice.”
Leaney said he wants to thank everybody who helped him search the ring, and is now speculating about the possibility of getting another during the 2009-10 Allan Cup, in Fort St. John, B.C., in April.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com