Championship Ring Lost In The Old Orchard Beach, Maine Water Found With A Metal Detector
On Saturday May, 11th, I started receiving multiple notifications, from Facebook, for my The Ring Finders of Maine page, an Emergency Metal Detecting Service. People had seen a Facebook post about a lost ring, on the beach, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Four or five people had commented on the post, to contact me, to search for the ring.
I then saw a message, from Nicole, stating,
“Hello! My daughter just informed me that she lost her Championship Ring, in OOB, today. She didn’t want to tell me sooner, because she was embarrassed, by it. I was told to reach out to you.”
The message came in at 5:49pm. I immediately replied with
“Hi, glad to help. It’s a very large beach, does she know which area?”
Nicole then sent me a photo of the Cheerleading Championship Ring and a photo of the area, her daughter had been in, earlier, in the day, with some of her friends. Nicole also told me that her daughter, Alyssa, said she was on the right side of the pier, when facing the water. I could tell, from the photo that she had been in front of Palace Playland, an amusement park. She then sent me a video of two boys, running down and jumping into the water, for greater clarity and direction , on where her daughter and friends, had been, on the beach.
Alyssa lives in Sanford, Maine, about 25 miles from Old Orchard Beach. She and her friends had stopped in OOB, on their way to a cheerleading competition, in South Portland, where her team was competing, in another Championship competition, this very night. Alyssa is a member of Port City Athletics and competes in their All Star Cheerleading group. Alyssa would not be able to perform, this night, due to an injury to her knee, which will require surgery. Alyssa was very upset about losing the ring, thinking it would bring bad luck to her teammates, that night.
I then asked Nicole if her daughter, had also gone in the water. Yes she had. I then sent a photo to Nicole, showing the beach and asked, which section of the beach she was in? I had broken the beach up into 4 different colored quadrants and Nichole’s daughter said section #3, was where they were laying on the beach. From the photo and video sent to me, I’m thinking it was quadrant #4, not section #3. I then asked if someone could meet me there and pinpoint the area, her daughter had frequented the most. Nicole and her daughter agreed to meet me there and I told her that I would load my equipment up and be there in approximately 30 minutes, at 6:30pm.
I arrived at 6:30pm and Nicole hadn’t arrived yet. I decided to start a horizontal grid search, of the dry sand, in quadrant #4. I had been searching, with my metal detector, for maybe 15 minutes, when everyone arrived. I asked Alyssa, if I was in the general area. Yes and she showed me some of the holes that she had dug, just about 15 feet from where I was.
I continued the search and was finding nothing, but a vape pen, bottle cap and a few rusty nails. While I was searching, Nicole, Alyssa, her father and her friend, were performing a visual search, mostly down in the wet sand, near the water. Nothing was found by them. After I had been searching for approximately 1 1/2 hours. Nicole and the rest of them had to leave. I told Nicole, I would search for another 1/2 hour or so, as it was getting dark and I was getting closer to the water. I continued grid searching, the wet slope of the beach, down to the water area. If I didn’t find it, I would be back, in the morning, for low tide and search the wet sand, that was now underwater. As I was making my way down the slope, I was finding nothing at all. I was approximately 1/2 to 3/4 of the way, down the slope, when I received my 1st and only Non-Ferrous target. It was ringing up a 12-04, on my CTX-3030 and the screen was telling me about 4 inches deep. I dug a couple times and the target was still in the hole. I dug a 3rd time, and as the saying goes, 3rd times a charm. I pushed some sand aside and I saw Alyssa’s Cheerleading Championship Ring. A big smile, broke out, on my face. Now getting dark and approximately 2 hours of searching, has resulted in more smiles, for my “Book of Smiles”. A good day.
I then messaged Nicole and told her I had just found Alyssa’s ring, along with a photo. Nicole replied,
“OMG, Thank you so much. That’s insane. I will message you tomorrow and we can grab it! Thank you sooo much.”
Sunday, Mother’s Day became to hectic and I received the following message from Nicole
“Thank you Dennis! Mother’s Day was a bit crazy and I ended up with a sick bunny and cheerleading watching!
Finding the ring ended up being good luck as her team WON another ring yesterday!!! ( she’s superstitious and though losing it would hurt them) She has an injury that wouldn’t let her compete but she’s excited for them!
We can pick it up on Wednesday evening if possible???
Thank you again!!!”
We all met up on Wednesday , May 15 and I returned the ring to Alyssa. Just a few days earlier. Alyssa was upset and crying, about losing her Championship Ring. She also thought she would bring her team bad luck, because she had lost last year’s Championship Ring and her team was competing for another Championship,on Saturday night, the same day she lost her ring. Well, no bad omens here! Her team WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN, incredible. Congratulations to all the cheerleaders, once again. Well done!!!
Alyssa is having the surgery on her knee, tomorrow, Thursday, May 16th. Prayers and well wishes go out to Alyssa. 🙏🙏🙏
Every ring, truly has a story behind it and what a great story this ring has. I absolutely love helping people like Nicole and Alyssa.
Kerry called during the day and left a message wondering if I would be able to help lost his lost wedding ring on the beach in Wildwood NJ. I called him right back to go over some of the details about how he lost his ring. Kerry explained he was on the beach with his family, playing with the dogs, and when he looked at his hand he noticed his wedding ring missing. He was very detail oriented, recalling every move leading up to the beach episode. After going over every detail of the day, he distinctly remembered having it on at dinner, and was almost positive it came off while playing with the dogs on the beach. Well, then he mentioned that he had searched the entire area with a metal detector and had no luck. They had also walked back and fourth the entire distance many times. If you know this beach it’s quite a vast area, kinda like walking to another zip code or two. I hope that brought things into perspective a bit. It was getting dark so they threw in the towel for the day, and returned the next morning with rakes to rake the entire area with hopes the ring would pop up. With no luck, it was time for them to pack up and head back home. I asked him to mark the exact location on his cell phone, with the GPS feature on Google Maps, and send it to me with a picture of his ring, and I would head right there after work. I parked right by the boardwalk, grabbed my gear and headed out to the beach. I opened the location he sent and somehow it was right where I was standing on the beach just beyond the boardwalk. I figured I would follow the dog tracks, but with the wind blowing about 30 knots they were getting covered by the drifting sand. Kerry had mentioned that he was straight out, and roughly 50′ from the high tide line, which was a good thing. Once I got close to the water I was able to see the area they had been raking earlier that morning, without that mark I highly doubt I would have been able to find the spot. Another huge thing in their favor was that the area was flat wet sand from from the prior high tide, and even though it had been raked quite a bit, didn’t blow flat, with the screaming south east wind. I turned on my machine, made one path around the perimeter, and on my return path Bingo!!! My machine gave off the sweet sound of success. A nice solid low tone, which I knew immediately was Kerry’s ring. Once back at my truck, I called his relatives phone hoping they were in town, but they were not. Then I called Kerry with the good news, and arranged to meet him at a later date to return his ring. another great recovery in the books.
