Bride’s Lost Engagement Ring in Dayton, Maryland…Found Hours Before Wedding
Liti’s 14 karat White Gold, Sapphire and Diamonds Engagement Ring
I had just finished a search and recovery for someone when I received a phone call from a distressed young bride who was going to be married the next morning. The young lady’s name was Liti and she had given her engagement ring to her sister Lulu for safekeeping while she was preparing for her upcoming wedding. It is customary in an Indian wedding to organize a Mehendi ceremony. Henna is applied to both hands and feet as a decorative expression and as a means of cooling the nerve endings of the body and preventing the nerves from tensing up. The henna artist traditionally visits the home of the bride or a family relative to create designs for the bride and her guests. This affair all took place on Liti and Lulu’s parents’ estate in Dayton, Maryland.
While this beautiful artwork was being applied to the bride’s hands and feet, her sister Lulu held onto her beautiful white gold, blue sapphire and diamonds engagement ring, along with Liti’s smartphone which was also placed in her sister’s pocket. Being the maid of honor, her sister tended to many of the needs of the bride while Liti was busy with the artist. Her sister took care of all kinds of details throughout their parent’s beautiful 4 acre estate out in the Maryland countryside. While walking the dogs all over the property, Lulu was unaware that some of the contents that she was given from the bride had actually fallen out of her pants pocket. It wasn’t until the bride asked for her ring and smartphone back that Liti’s sister realized that the contents had come out of her loose pants pocket and was somewhere on the property or in the house. She felt so bad about losing the items and they looked everywhere inside the house and all over the property grounds.
Eventually the iPhone showed up on the front lawn property, but the ring could not be recovered. They searched and searched but they couldn’t find it. The family decided to rent a metal detector which they would need to pick up from a shop about 45 minutes away from the estate and then bring it back to the house to metal detect the grounds. Time was ticking fast – the pre-wedding ceremony would begin that evening and the main wedding ceremony would be in less than 24 hours! Unfortunately, because they had no experience in operating the rented detector and/or the device may not have located the ring based on the quality of the machine, they were not able to find the ring that Liti so desperately needed back for her beloved wedding ceremony to begin in just hours! The ladies were frantic! One of the family members had to return the metal detector back to the rental shop and then come back to the house to continue wedding preparations. They were lost for ideas as to what to do next, until an eleven year-old angel who was being prepared for the evening and morning ceremonies came forward with a brilliant idea!
One of the bride’s second cousins named Sara searched online for other ideas of how to recover the missing ring. This is when she learned about THE RING FINDERS directory! Sara read about my past searches and then went to my video channel on YouTube and watched some of the recoveries that I had published in the past. She got all excited and shared the idea with the bride, suggesting that she call me up to see if I could help recover the missing engagement ring before the morning’s ceremony at the estate. The wedding would be held under a marvelous white tent that had been put up earlier in the day. Truck after truck of wedding décor, sound equipment and food was already being transported onto the gorgeous estate! Time was running out! Liti was thrilled about the information that Sara provided her and Liti immediately called me up to see what I could do to help her.
I heard such desperation in Liti’s voice as she went through the details of sharing what took place with the disappearance of the ring and what actions they took to try to resolve the problem. She was hoping that I could come as quickly as possible and attempt a recovery of the missing engagement ring before morning because the entire front yard (which was the very possible place where the ring may have disappeared) would be parked with wedding guest vehicles that would start to arrive in the early morning hours. I assured Liti that I would do everything possible to recover the ring before morning. She was not even sure if it was lost outside or not, even though her iPhone was recovered out on the front lawn. Due to the fact that her sister had pockets that were very loose, anything could fall out of them at any point in time. There was no confidence that the ring had fallen out on the front lawn, but there was a good chance that it was lost inside the very large home. We made arrangements for me to arrive at four in the afternoon that day. I could not wait to get my gear out onto the property and inside the house so that I could return this most precious sentimental part of Liti’s life back on her finger before the wedding ceremony in the morning!
Upon arriving at the estate around 4pm that afternoon, I was greeted by an entourage of family, including young Sara who was the one that found me online. I was taken around the house and outside onto the property lawn and was shown where the iPhone was found and other places where the ring may have fallen out of the pants pocket on the front lawn and in the backyard. Because there was such a good chance that the ring fell out of the pocket inside the house, I started my search by checking out each room and as Sara accompanied me, we looked very carefully as two determine detectives out to discover the lost jewelry item! We must have spent over an hour inside the house but no ring was found. I was pretty convinced that the ring had to be outside. We were talking about many acres of land to search and so it made much more sense to check out all of the possibilities inside the estate before spending many additional hours searching on the grass. I find many rings inside homes and so I never discount the possibility that the ring may have never left the house.
There was a lot of land to cover! By the time I started the search with my metal detectors outside, it was probably around 5:30pm. I conducted a grid search across the front lawn and moved my way towards the road in front of the house. It took hours to grid from close to the house to the road. As I searched, there were guests arriving at the estate for the pre-wedding ceremony that would take place that evening. Lots of people inquired about what I was doing and they were all quite supportive in hoping that I would find what we were looking for on behalf of the bride.
Sara wanted to help metal detect alongside me, so I gave her one of my detectors and showed her some basics of how to use it. She was a very fast learner! Both of us expanded our search over the yard, obtaining decent target signals from time to time, but the ring was nowhere to be found. Once I completed the first grid search in the front of the property, I headed for the side and backyard areas where the wedding tent was set up. We searched the grounds where it was still open lawn space, where no chairs and tables were in the way of our detecting methods. Unfortunately, the backyard was clear of the ring being found. I then decided for us to go back to the front yard and start all over again. It was probably around 8:30pm in the evening by the time we attempted our second grid search in the front yard. The clock was ticking and everybody was aware that if I didn’t find the ring by early morning, the cars would be parked on the lawn and I would not be able to conduct any further searches until after the wedding. It was imperative that I found the ring as soon as possible!
Eventually Sara needed to get changed into one of her formal gowns and have the henna art applied to her hands. She did not want to break from doing her own search but she was urged along by her mother Priya that it was time to take a break. I was genuinely impressed by her motivation to help find the ring! I promised her that she would be the first to know if I had found what we were looking for!
Three more hours went by and I was starting to get perplexed as to why I had not found the ring as of yet. I was starting to believe that I must have just missed it. The ring that we were looking for was made of 14 karat white gold with a lovely sapphire in the middle and diamonds surrounding the blue stone. Liti was very petite and the ring size was quite small. Therefore, there was not a lot of gold to look for and if the ring was pressed into the ground, I would definitely get a signal, but it could have been limited based on the sensitivity setting that I set on the detector. Before calling it quits for the night, I decided to go back into the house and do a quick search again in the family room, just in case the ring slipped into the couch. I still couldn’t find it. Yet, I stayed very positive and expressed my confidence to everyone just how certain I was that with God’s help all things were possible!
It was amazing seeing so many people fellowshipping all over the estate. There were those that would be sleeping there for the night and others that would leave and return in the morning for the wedding ceremony. Everybody was dressed up in the most beautiful gowns and suits. After all of the time that I was searching for the ring I started getting familiar with some of the members of the family and friends who were cheering me on and hoping for the best. Even some of the guys walked around on the property with me just to keep me company and kept an eye on the ground in case they saw something shiny popping out of the earth.
When the ring wasn’t found in the house late that night, I resolved to call it quits for the night. I was exhausted. But I was determined with all of my prayers and with all of my abilities to resume the search in the early morning hours and hoped to pull the ring from the earth before Liti and Mark would be exchanging vows and rings! In the meantime, I slept in my car which was parked along the estate’s luxurious circular driveway.
The next morning, at 6:30am, I arose from the seat of my car and slowly made my way around the vehicle where I pulled out my metal detector and the rest of the gear that I used for the search. I was determined to fight as hard as I could to have the bride’s engagement ring back by the start of the wedding ceremony. She needed that ring on her finger and I was the only one capable of returning to her before it was too late!
I started off with a prayer and asked the Lord to help me with wisdom and with divine guidance to help me pinpoint the location of where this missing ring ended up. I must have missed the spot where the ring ended up, although I felt that I was quite thorough in my grid searches the day before. The hard part was deciding where to start because the property was so huge. There were a couple of acres in the front yard and a couple of acres in the backyard. I had to choose what spot to start searching around and I so I asked God where I should go, as I stood on the front yard in the pure quiet of the morning. The sun had just come over the horizon. I selected a spot that I felt comfortable working with, as well as adjusted the sensitivity level on my detector. I boosted it up considerably higher than what it was set at before because I was pretty convinced that I must have missed the ring based on how the band of the ring may have been positioned on the ground or possibly in the ground if it was pushed below the surface. The higher level of sensitivity would help to highlight any signals that may have been too faint before when Sara and I were searching in the prior afternoon and evening yesterday.
I started the morning search on the front lawn of the house and within 10 minutes of starting out, I checked out a signal that was clearly in the range of white gold! The signal was extremely choppy for a white gold ring signal but I had not remembered observing this particular signal yesterday. Had the sensitivity level on my detector been set any lower, I don’t think I would have been able to pick up this particular target. I moved the detector over the target again and again from different angles and I was confident enough that it was worth checking out. I didn’t want to get too excited because I had already searched for nearly 8 hours the day before and so it would absolutely blow my mind if this target was in fact the one I was after! Just as I started to get my pinpointer detector out its holster and kneel down to take a look at what was hidden in the grass, I got a glimpse of what appeared to be a blue sapphire stone and I believe I may have seen just a slight bit of white gold peeking out, as well!
My heart started racing and I thought it was too good to be true! It had been such a long search! The wonderful thing was that I knew what I was seeing and it took everything within me to not let out all of my excitement at 6:50am in the morning while everybody was sleeping inside! Actually, everyone seemed to be fast asleep except one gentleman who was outside getting some fresh air on the front porch steps. He had been watching me as he did the day before. The man never said a word, but just watched me for the longest time! He clearly saw me looking intently at the ground and then looking his way with utter excitement! I used my hands to call him over and he came off of the front porch and walked onto the lawn where I was! There it was! I pointed to the gorgeous engagement ring that was implanted more than half way into the dirt, but soon would be a part of the wedding ceremony, perhaps 40 yards or so from where I recovered it on the front lawn! What a fantastic finish! I pulled the ring from the earth and dusted it off as the two of us were standing there alone in the early hours rejoicing together!
I thanked God for putting me right in the place where I needed to look and that decision came to wonderful fruition! In the end, I concluded that because the ring was pushed into the ground presumably by somebody’s shoe, the white gold (which is sometimes difficult to detect for a very petite sized finger) was just not registering on my detector clear enough with the sensitivity that I was using the day before. By turning up the sensitivity I was at risk of hearing unwanted metal signals in the ground, but it helped me to pick up the lonely engagement ring that so desperately wanted to return to her bride’s finger for the special day’s ceremony! The location of where I found the ring was not too far from where the iPhone had been recovered the day before. It now made all of the sense in the world!
It didn’t take long before family members and friends started rushing out of the front door of the home and made their way over to the lawn where I so happily stood with the sapphire engagement ring grasped between my fingers! Everyone was hugging me and shaking my hand with congratulations! Lulu, the sister to the bride, came out crying with relief and happiness, knowing that the ring was found and would soon be returned to her sister! Liti then made her way out of the front door and over to me and the smile on her face will never be forgotten! There was such relief and happiness written all over the bride’s countenance! Liti thanked me over and over again and we got a chance to review the location of where the ring came to rest the day before. She was going to have that ring back on her finger just in time for her beloved groom Mark to present her with the wedding band! The father and mother of the bride came out to me and threw their arms around me and thanked me over and over again! It was such a great moment for all of us! It was like having a party before the actual party began! Everybody was swarming out of that mansion just to get in with the celebration that we were all having! The ring was found and now returned to the princess! Wow, what a morning that was! I kept smiling and thanking God for helping me find that ring in the nick of time!
Young Sara was awoken by family and was told that I had found the ring. I did not have the chance to break the news personally because she was fast asleep in the house. She came outside, still waking up from her slumber and quickly breathed in the reality that the ring was actually found! I wish she could have been with me when it was discovered, but she had stayed up very late the night before with all of the wedding events at the property and she was extremely tired from so much going on the day before. I took her over to where I found the ring and she was beyond happy for her second cousin!
In less than three hours, the wedding ceremony would begin and the front lawn would be completely packed with cars. I was thrilled that I was able to pull the ring from the ground just three hours from when Liti and Mark would be tying the knot! I just couldn’t get over the timing of everything! It was such a dream come true for me, but even more so, of course, for Liti the bride!
Before I left, I spoke with Sara and I promised her that I would help her with obtaining some metal detecting equipment to get her started with her own hobby that she was interested in getting into. I explained to her that at one of my previous searches in Baltimore, Maryland, a gentleman donated a completely brand-new metal detector and headphones to me with the hope that I would find a young person who was interested in taking up the hobby. I had it in my garage for a month or two, wondering who I would give it to, and it was clear that Sara was the one that was supposed to have it! Eventually I sent everything up to her in New York so she could play around with the equipment and get her feet wet with the hobby of metal detecting which she was so excited about. She was thrilled and could not wait to start learning the sport!
After I packed up my car with all of my equipment, I started my drive around the circular path in front of the house and said my goodbyes to the family and to the bride. I asked Liti to give my regards to the groom and wish Mark all of my best! Then, her father came up to me and shook my hand and thanked me profusely for helping his daughter with the recovery of her ring. It meant so much to me and I will never forget his expressions of kindness! My last wave goodbye was saved for Sara as I neared the end of the drive and reached the road where I was then headed off to the beach for my next adventure. The last fifteen hours or so was a fairytale story that started off in the end with a very happy beginning for Liti and Mark!
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