Three Italian 'Hobbits' Found a Stranger's Wedding Ring in a Tuscan River, Then Flew It Home to Ireland

BORGO A MOZZANO, Italy - Patrick Mohr was standing in a mountain river in Tuscany this summer, catching his children as they leapt from a boulder, when one of them grabbed his hand and his gold wedding ring slipped off into the fast water. Three local men who happened to be swimming nearby, Filippo Palagi, Edoardo Poggi and Nicola Malloggi, went looking for it, found it on the riverbed and then, rather than mail it, flew to Ireland dressed as hobbits to put it back in his hand, Mr. Mohr and Mr. Palagi told CBC Radio's As It Happens.

"I just stood there a little bit paralyzed with instant knowledge it's gone," Mr. Mohr, who is from Ireland, told the program's guest host, Dave Seglins. "I didn't see much hope in it." He has been married for 16 years, and he said the loss went well beyond the value of the 18-carat gold. "It's not about the gold ring, it's about the sentimental value of what it means," he said.

The local newspaper Il Tirreno, which first reported the story on Oct. 4, said the ring was lost on July 4, a scorching day, at a small beach on the Lima river not far from Fabbriche di Casabasciana, in the province of Lucca. The three friends, all from Borgo a Mozzano, were in the habit of swimming there. Mr. Poggi and Mr. Palagi are both 30 and Mr. Malloggi is 35, the paper reported. The Mohrs, a family from Dublin with three teenage daughters, were on holiday in the Garfagnana and bound next for the Chianti.

Someone asked the young men whether they had swimming goggles to look underwater; CBC's account says it was Mr. Mohr's wife, while Il Tirreno says it was Mr. Mohr himself. They had none. The friends helped search, but the depth and the current defeated them, Il Tirreno reported. Mr. Mohr said he was dejected and "a bit grumpy," in no mood for strangers. His wife was not ready to give up, and before the family left she exchanged phone numbers with the three men in case the ring turned up.

Mr. Palagi told CBC that he and his friends were not especially optimistic either. But to lift Mr. Mohr's spirits they made him a promise in the spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien: they would find the golden ring and return it to its rightful owner, a quest that, they joked, would take more than a thousand years.

The accounts of the search differ in detail. Mr. Palagi told CBC the friends first looked from a kayak, and after two days without success tied themselves to boulders with ropes and dived in scuba masks, finally concentrating on a stretch of rapids where the current ran strongest. Il Tirreno reported that about a week after the loss the three returned to their usual spot, this time with goggles. Both outlets agree on the moment itself: a glint of light on the riverbed. Mr. Malloggi saw it and reached for it, Mr. Palagi told CBC, calling the moment "unbelievable." It was the ring.

Nine days after losing it, Mr. Mohr was still on vacation in Tuscany and making dinner when a text arrived from an Italian number he did not know. It carried a photograph of the ring and a message: "Hi Sméagol, look what we found."

"I put the phone back in my pocket and kept stirring the pasta pot in shock," Mr. Mohr told CBC. "My wife looked at my expression on my face and asked me what happened." When he showed the message to his family, he said, "chaos ensued." Il Tirreno reported that the family wept with happiness on the phone and invited the three men to Dublin.

"It's such an improbable story," Mr. Mohr said. "The guys most certainly didn't have to look for us, and when they found it, they wanted to get in touch with me to tell me."

The friends decided not to post the ring, Il Tirreno reported, but to deliver it in person once work allowed, and the trip was set for Oct. 1. In keeping with the quest, they cast themselves as three of Tolkien's hobbits, Frodo, Merry and Sam.

"They approached me, all three dressed like hobbits, playing music from the Lord of the Rings to hand me back the ring," Mr. Mohr told CBC. "We made friends that evening."

Mr. Mohr had planned a full day for his guests. He took them to Glendalough, the lakeside monastic site in the Wicklow Mountains, and the neighboring valley of Glenmalure, then to his local pub for a pint of Guinness and home for a traditional Irish meal with his family, CBC reported. The Italians brought Vin Santo and cantuccini, Il Tirreno reported, and each went home with a small box holding a bracelet engraved with a dedication to the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings. "The most beautiful moment was when we all hugged together," the three friends told the paper. "A fantastic, indescribable feeling."

"Before that, we never knew each other, [but] now, we have a family in Ireland," Mr. Palagi told CBC.

Mr. Mohr said the episode had given him a new faith in the kindness of strangers. "Sometimes you have to let go of control, sometimes you have to put things out into the universe and ask for help," he said. "And sometimes, you get an answer."

Sources: CBC Radio, As It Happens, Catherine Zhu, Oct. 17, 2026: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/kindness-friendship-story-italy-ireland-9.7383392 ; Il Tirreno, Emanuela Ambrogi, Oct. 4, 2026: https://www.iltirreno.it/lucca/cronaca/2026/10/04/news/il-miracolo-degli-amici-dell-anello-ritrovano-fede-nuziale-nel-fiume-1.100925593 . Il Tirreno quotations are translated from Italian by Just Positive. Where the two accounts differ, on who asked for goggles and on how and when the ring was found, both versions are attributed. Mr. Mohr's daughters are not named. All images are illustrative, freely licensed photos from Wikimedia Commons; none shows the people in this story.