😃 I couldn’t possibly tell this story better than Lindsey herself so here it is below:
“It’s a pretty big honor to have the opportunity to tell this story and share the name of the guy who is the reason this story has a happy ending after all. Over a year and a half ago, in October of 2016, my oldest daughter “borrowed” my engagement ring and wedding band which I had taken off while preparing food for a father/son campout birthday party we were hosting for her two brothers later that evening. Without my knowledge, she wore them into the yard not realizing that because they were loose they would fall right off of her hand into the grass. We discovered that both were missing mere moments before my husband came home from work and guests started arriving. The remaining daylight hours of the party turned into a father/son treasure hunt, and while my engagement ring turned up almost immediately, the wedding band was nowhere to be found. One of the guests had a metal detector at his own home less than a half mile away so he allowed us to use it as we continued to look for two more days. My husband even created a crime scene style search grid, but still we found nothing. Fast forward to May 6, 2018. My precious neighbor messaged to ask if we happened to have a metal detector we might be able to loan them. By the time I wrote back and told her we had actually had to borrow one ourselves a while ago, she already had a different solution to her own situation in the works. And since I shared the story of my lost wedding band with her she was quick to let me know what that solution was–a gentleman by the name of Dave Cartee who had come to the rescue when her son’s girlfriend’s promise ring had been lost in the sand at the beach. While I had doubts finding it was even possible because so much time had passed and it might not even be there anymore because it could have been moved great distances by our lawn mower or buried in the mud by flooding during heavy rains, I couldn’t help but call Dave to inquire if I should hold out any hope at all. Jordan had bought me a replacement wedding band last summer, but there was still something so sentimentally special about the original that if it could be found I would not want to pass up the opportunity, even if it meant paying someone with expertise and good equipment to find it. A few minutes after calling Dave, he and his wife showed up. He searched with the beach equipment he already had on him for a while and when the search didn’t turn up anything right away he asked for permission to return with his land equipment on another day. This evening he showed up and after an hour I came out to check on him. It was evident he was calling it a day. I figured maybe he thought it had just been too long since it was lost or it was too hot to work for too long. “Nothing?” I asked. “No, I found a few things. A foil wrapper, a bullet, a penny. And one more thing” he said while digging in a pouch tied to his waist. “Do you recognize this? It was about 3 or 4 inches down buried in the dirt.” At first I really didn’t. It was so encrusted with dirt that I thought it was some old building material that had been dumped in the yard, but the closer I looked I could see the tiny little diamonds and milgrain. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t. The best thing about the whole experience: I could tell that my joy over the returned ring brought Dave equally great joy if that’s even possible. It once was lost but now is found. Dave Cartee, you recovered something irreplaceable. We will never forget your kindness or your commitment to seek and save that which was lost. Thank you!”
