When Michael LeBow got a long-distance call from an American man who told him he found his bracelet in a Nevada lake, he thought he was being scammed.

LeBow didn't have a clue what the caller was talking about until he described the engravings -- words that aroused boyhood memories of his father and a silver bracelet he lost 53 years ago.

The piece of jewelry disappeared when LeBow, then 13, was swimming in Lake Tahoe during a family camping trip.

"I felt terrible. We looked for it and looked for it but couldn't find it," said LeBow, a 66-year-old psychology professor at the University of Manitoba. "Years went by and I forgot about it."

His memory faded but the sentimental value has grown deeper. The bracelet was a gift from his dad, Bill, who wore it during the Second World War.

How the bracelet wound up on LeBow's wrist a half-century later is a tale that involves a stroke of luck.

George Miskovsky was combing Lake Tahoe with his metal detector -- his favourite pastime -- this past summer when he found something buried in the sand in three metres of water.

He pulled out a corroded, chain-link bracelet reading "Mike LeBow" on the front and "Love Mom, Dad, Julie and Esty" on the back.

'A BIT OFF'

"I thought it was 20 to 30 years old. I guess I was a bit off," said Miskovsky, a building inspector with the City of South Lake Tahoe, Calif.

He took it home and got thousands of matches when he searched "Mike LeBow" on the Internet.

He added the names "Julie" and "Esty" and found a website for a book LeBow wrote and dedicated to his sisters, Julie and Esty.

"Once I found that I pretty much knew I found the person," Miskovsky said.

He enlisted the help of co-worker Bill Potts, who found LeBow's contact information on the U of M's website.

Miskovsky made the phone call a few days later to make arrangements for the bracelet's return. LeBow got it back in late August and had it fixed.

"George likes to do this because he hopes he can find something and return it to its owner," Potts said. "It's a special thrill when it's a family heirloom."

Finding the bracelet's owner was the exciting part, Miskovsky said.

"It's not that often you get to return stuff to someone," he said.

Miskovsky turned down a reward offer, but Potts asked LeBow to write about the bracelet in his next book. LeBow agreed, and said he will dedicate the book to the pair.

"It's a great story," LeBow said. "I told my class to never lose hope."