(UPI) A Montana boy found a set of dog tags and sergeant's stripes buried in the yard at his home and his family was able to return them to their 84-year-old owner, more than 60 years after he last saw them.

Wyatt Macy, 15, said he returned home recently and spotted something shiny in his Sheridan yard.

"Right here, looked down and just seen something metal and bent down, grabbed it, just a little dog tag and I'm like, 'wow, it looks real,'" Wyatt told KXLF-TV.

Wyatt and his mother, Becky Macy, enlisted the help of the American Legion Post in Twin Bridges to find the owner of the items, and they were able to identify the tags as belonging to Billings resident Jack Bennetts, 84.

"And he's still alive, I mean, that was so cool when he was like, 'I found him in Billings, we found him the White Pages.' No way! That is so cool," Becky Macy said.

Bennetts said his mother lived at the home in Sheridan when he finished his 1953-1957 tour of duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.

He said he doesn't know how his dog tags and sergeant's stripes ended up in the ground, but he suspects his nieces and nephews might have gotten ahold of them more than 60 years ago.

The long-lost items arrived in a package at Bennetts' home Saturday.

"It's a pleasant surprise," Bennetts told KTVQ-TV. And I was very happy to get them. I never thought I'd ever see them again. That's for sure.

Bennetts said he and his wife, Beverly, hope to make a trip to Sheridan to meet the Macys in person and thank them.

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